


My Place in All This

by MASD_1138



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Black Squadron - Freeform, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Force Ghost Luke Skywalker, Force-Sensitive Poe Dameron, I assume a lot of things for the sake of my plot, More Force Ghost, Planet Naboo (Star Wars), Post-Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Protective Poe Dameron, Slow Burn, creating my own rules for the Force to work with my storyline
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-20
Updated: 2019-04-19
Packaged: 2019-05-25 17:41:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 24
Words: 37,162
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14982242
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MASD_1138/pseuds/MASD_1138
Summary: Set after the Last Jedi, this story follows our main characters as they try to rebuild the Resistance. Meeting abord the Millenium Falcon, Poe and Rey get to know each other and build a trusting relationship. Faced with many challenges, our heroes will have to learn to navigate their new roles in this war with the help of some familiar faces.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! This is actually the first fanfic I've ever written, but I've been reading fan fiction for many years and I decided to take a shot at it. I chose to write about Poe and Rey because for some reason I started shipping them after that 10 second scene in The Last Jedi. I love the parallels between their relationship and Han and Leia's relationship. English is not my first language so there could be some mistakes. I appreciate constructive criticism and would love to know what you think about my story! If you have any questions, my Tumblr is MASD-1138

As the surviving members of the Resistance settled down in the Falcon, Rey quickly moves to the cockpit to bring the ship to light speed before the First Order could catch up to them. Once she makes sure that they aren’t being followed, Rey sits back and the wave of emotions she was shielding herself from hits her. She feels pain, loss and so much sadness. Even Leia’s usually soothing presence in the Force is overwhelming. The grief of everybody else makes her almost forget her own. Feeling Luke’s death was horrible even if he was at peace. The departure of such a strong Force signature was like being left on Jakku all those years ago. She’s also mad at herself for actually believing she could bring Ben - no Kylo she reminds herself - back to the Light. Rey looks down at her lap where her broken lightsaber is. She lost another thing that was important to her. She thinkers a bit with the pieces until the two fragments of the crystal slip out and, as soon as she touches them, she feels a strange heat course through her body. She sees a young boy in the desert leave his mom behind. The pain radiating from the memory makes her hope than whomever left her behind were as sad as that boy. She sees him grow up into a man training beside what she assume would be his master. She sees him fall in love and get married. She feels the love and happiness from the memory about the pregnancy. Then, in a series of quick but powerful images she sees him turn to the Dark side. But, the darkness suddenly shatters and, in between the cracks, light start streaming in. She recognizes the source immediately. Luke and Leia. What she doesn’t expect is the beginning of another vision. A boy in the desert. 

 

“Again?” she asks herself.

 

No. This isn’t the same boy. This one stays the desert and grows up there until everything he knows is taken away from him. A friendly face appears. Han Solo. She gets a first class seat to the fight against the Empire as if she was Luke’s copilot. She sees him start up the new training temple. She sees how good he was with the younglings. Rey gasps when she sees Luke fall in love. Pure happiness emerge from the memory when she sees him holding a small child in his arms. She also feels shame from Luke. Not shame from having a child but, shame from hiding it from the world. Fear comes back when she sees a great fire. Rey sees him running with his child in his arms struggling to escape from an invisible pursuer. She realizes its from the night Ben turned. Luke gets into a small ship and settles his daughter into a seat. A small voice asks:

 

“Where is Mama?” 

 

And Rey gets her first good look at his face. It’s plagued with grief and fear, tears slowly making their way down on his cheeks. “ She is… She is waiting for us in the Force…” He turns back to the commands of the ship and they leave the planet. After, Luke crouches down in front of his daughter, takes her face in his hands and he starts crying again. 

 

“I love you… I need you to know that. Everything I am about to do is for you. He won’t get his hands on you I swear.”

 

“I believe you Papa.”

 

“I’m so sorry.”

A look of pure concentration makes its way across Luke’s face while tears stream out of his eyes. Rey sees the memories of the little girl fade away and watches Luke lay her down and whisper into her ear.

 

“One day, one day I know we will find each other again. I have to go away now. Don’t wait for me like your mother did. I love you.”

 

Rey’s heart break at the sight. The image shifts and then it’s like a new memory starts again. This time, she sees a little girl in the desert. It’s her own memory. The little girl looks up and watches a ship leave her behind. She feels a pain similar to the one from Anakin’s memory. The pain of leaving someone behind. It’s from the person in the ship. Rey realizes who she is. She doesn’t remember anything from before Jakku except something about waiting. She feels the air shift around her and it’s like something unlocks inside of her. She no longer sees the visions from a third point of view. She is the little girl. Memories from birthdays, days by a small lake learning how to swim. Fixing up old droids with Luke. Learning to pilot a speeder safely caged in his arm. Falling asleep nestled between her parents during the colder days. Learning to climb cliffs from her mother. She learns to fight from her mother and her father. Both of them, she realizes, have a lightsaber attached to their belts. She watches in awe has they move in perfect synchronicity through fighting forms. She watches her mother doing simple housework with the Force and Luke trying to look annoyed at her. Rey vaguely remembers something about him telling his wife that it was not the Jedi way. 

 

“We aren’t that good at respecting the Jedi code anyway my love,” she had answered while smiling at their daughter - no at her, Rey remembers - with love.

 

“She was a Jedi too,” Rey whispers.

 

She remembers asking her dad when she could come to the temple and train with the other youngling. 

 

“When you are older.”

 

“But you start training the others when the are younger than me Papa!”

 

“ This is not up for discussion Rey,” he had snapped at her.

 

She watches her parents leave for the temple while she had to stay behind with R2D2. She observes the temple catch on fire from her house. She sees her father running to the house while yelling at her to get dressed quickly. And then, she is back in the ship. Rey is forcefully thrown from the visions. She falls from the captain’s chair and unto her knees. The crystals slip out out of her hand and she feels like she had on Ahch-To when she was compelled by the Dark side. Kylo Ren is the reason she ended up alone all those years on Jakku. He probably killed her mother and now, he took the father she never knew she had. She gasp for air and tries to center herself by trying to find the strongest beacon of light on the Falcon. When she does, she focuses on it and blocks everything else out. When she feels calm enough to open her eyes, she see Luke in front of her, a strange blue light surrounding his form. He looks so sad yet, so happy. He sees the confused look on her face and before she could even ask him he answers:

 

“Yes, I am your father.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey and Luke speak about her childhood and why he had to leave her on Jakku.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is mostly dialogue which scared me a bit while writing since I didn't want to make them act too much out of character. I hope you all like it!

Rey stares at Luke for what, to her, feels like hours. Yet, a small and patient smile settles on his face. He crouches down to her level and takes her face in his hands, just as he had done all those years ago. The sensation is confusing to Rey. It feels so familiar and right , but at the same time distant. Tears are still streaming from her eyes and, for the first time in her life, someone wipes them away for her. 

 

“ I know, I know. Breathe Rey, breathe.”

 

She looks up at him and the only sounds she is able to form were:

 

“ Papa...”

 

His smile spreads and a lightness that Luke Skywalker had not felt in years settled into his heart. He hasn’t ever been so grateful to the force in all his life. He thanks the Gods to have gifted him with the chance to hold his daughter again. To see her safe aboard this ship with his sister. He wishes he could have told Leia about Rey before he died so that the kids could have grown up together, but at the same time he doesn’t regret hiding her. Snoke would have gotten her and if that had happened, he wouldn’t have ever forgiven himself. He knows he will have explain to Rey why he had left her. She deserves to know everything. She will, he tells himself. He starts with the first thing he needs her to know:

 

“I don’t know how to tell you how much I love you. I know I failed you. You and Ben. My paranoia caused both of you so much pain. I am so sorry.”

 

His thumbs are still slowly stroking her cheekbones, keeping her anchored in the moment. He waits for her answer patiently. He closes his eyes and tries to push into the Force how much he is sorry, how much he loves her. He tries to unlock every memory he took away from her.

 

“ I don’t understand why... why didn’t you tell me back on the island.”

 

His eyes snap open. He had expected her to be mad at him, to yell or something. He knows he would have deserved it. It’s almost as if he wants her to be mad. So he simply answers:

 

“I didn’t completely recognize you. You looked so familiar yet I couldn’t bring myself to believe it was you. When you gave me my father's lightsaber, the one I had lost so many years ago, I was sure you were some kind of Force ghost hunting me. I felt as if you were the ghost of my daughter, what she could have become. I didn’t know if you had made it on Jakku. When I cut myself off from the force, I lost my connection to all of you . Leia and Han too. So I assumed I had gone crazy.” 

 

Rey gets up from the floor and sits back in the captain's chair. Luke sits in Chewbacca's seat but, he keeps Rey’s hand clasped in his own.

 

“Why did you leave me on Jakku?”

“It was the only planet that, like I said to you, that was nowhere. He couldn't have found you there.”

 

“Who was looking for me?”

 

“Snoke told Ben that I had an hidden apprentice. Someone that I was training to be what he called, and I quote “ The Skywalker heir”. He was so mad. Your mother she... she stayed behind. At the temple. I told her I was going to speak to Ben. I always hated lying to her. She was inside when Ben set it on fire. I didn’t know how long I had been unconscious so I ran towards the house. I had to get you out. I could no longer feel your mother I knew... I knew she was dead. You were the only person left that was important to me. I failed at being a Jedi, but I wasn’t going to fail to protect you. After I left you, I closed myself off from the Force.”

 

“Why did you do that? What did you mean when you said that it was time for the Jedi to end?”

 

“I was so angry. In one night, I lost my family, my students and my home. By removing my presence from the Force, I could stay hidden and our connection was destroyed so I kept you safe. As for the Jedi ending, if I had not been a Jedi, we could have lived like a normal family. You could have grown up with Ben and have an aunt and uncle. When you were born, I realized that I didn’t want to be a Master, The Great Master Jedi, I wanted to be one thing. Your father. I wanted to raise you, teach you and cherish you. The years I had with you and your mother were the best of my life. I only wished we had had more.”

 

“When did you recognize me?”

 

“The night that you and Ben connected I panicked and, as soon as I used the Force, I felt you. I didn’t know what to do. You were so angry at me. I feared that if I told you the truth, now and then, you would have hated me even more.”

 

“I never hated you, I spent years waiting for you. You should have told me that night. I would have stayed with you, I wouldn’t have gone to Kylo. We could have gone to save the Resistance together. You didn’t need to die,” Rey cries out to her father, clutching his hand tighter.

 

“Rey, I believe this is what the Force wanted. You need to make your own way in this world. I wish I could be there with you. Thankfully the Force is allowing me to visit you. I will be there for you the way I wished I could have been all your life.”

 

“What about my mother? Is she with you, can I see her too?”

 

“She is with me in the Force. I don’t think she can come for now. She asked me to tell you that she loves you very much. The Kyber crystal from the lightsaber is what is making this connection easier. You will need to become more in tune with the Force or find a place that is strongly connected with it and then you will be able to speak to others. I need to go now. The visions and keeping me here is taking up a lot of your energy. We will be able to speak again. I am never going to let you be alone again I swear. If you want to tell Leia about this, tell her I love her and that Han is at peace.”

 

“Tell mama I love her too.”

 

“Of course Rey.” 

 

“And Luke.”

 

“Yes?”

 

“I love you too.”

 

With a smile on his face, Luke fades out in front of Rey. As soon as he is gone, she feel exhausted and falls asleep in the captain’s chair. For the first time in many years, she peacefully dreams of her happy childhood.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> btw Poe is going to appear in chapter 4. I just want to set my story a bit more and build my version of Rey's backstory first.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In this chapter I wanted to start building Rey's relationship with Leia . Thank you for reading!

Rey is sleeping in the cockpit when Leia comes in and sits down in Chewie’s chair. The older woman looks incredibly tired. She chuckles when she remembers the countless times when she had herself fallen asleep in that chair. During the first year after the end of the war, Han and her had travelled a lot to get the support of other systems and build the New Republic. Falling asleep in the Flacon’s cockpit after hours of negotiations became a ritual for her. Her husband’s ship became their home. When she walked on board earlier she was hit with the many memories they had made. Leia is happy that the ship has a new owner that will take great care of it. She knows Han would be too. Chewie had told her that Han had offered Rey a job back on Takodana and that she had answered that she needed to go back to Jakku. Leia hopes that after all that has happened to her, Rey will decide to stay if they win the war. Having a girl around her that isn’t under her command is something she looks forward to, because, even if she is the general, Leia feels like she should be a mentor to Rey, not her boss. She decides to wake up Rey since they need to discuss what happened on the Supremacy and with Luke. She gently puts her hand on Rey’s arm and shakes her slightly, not wanting to startle a sleeping Jedi. She had made that mistake once with Luke before and that resulted with her getting thrown back. Rey opens her eyes and as soon as she sees that it was Leia that had woken her up, she surprises herself when she bluntly says:  
“I’m Luke’s daughter.”

Leia is visibly startled by Rey’s confession. She doesn’t say anything for a couple of seconds and a tear slips from her eyes when she says:

 

“Han told me you looked too much like me to be a coincidence. That damn Skywalker blood. Your presence in the Force is similar to Luke’s. If you don’t mind me asking, how do you know this? You told me you didn’t know who your parents were or where you came from when we first met.”

 

“ I found out when I touched the crystal from the broken lightsaber and had visions about my childhood. Luke appeared to me from the Force and told me the truth. He asked me to tell you that he loves you and that… that Han is happy.” Rey hesitates when she says that last phrase, not knowing how Leia will react. She relaxes when Leia gives her a kind smile.

 

“Thank you Rey. I wished I could have known you when you were a child. I wished that Luke would have trusted me enough to tell me about you. But, for now, I need to ask you about what has happened since you left.”

 

“Of course, and Leia, I don’t think he didn’t trust you. He didn’t trust himself. He was scared.”

 

Rey takes Leia’s hand and, just like her father did for her earlier, tries to send a sentiment of love and openness into the Force. The two women look at each other for a moment and a thousand words pass between them.They settle back in their seats and then Rey starts explaining everything that happened since the island. She tells Leia about Luke cutting himself off from the Force and him refusing to train her. She uses that moment to explain why Luke didn’t recognize her back on the island. The conversation gets heavy when Rey tells her about the Force bond. Leia’s eyes fill with tears and regret.

 

“I’m so sorry Rey.”

 

“I also have to tell you something about the night Ben turned. Maybe I should let Luke tell you this but I don’t know if you can speak to him like I can. I don’t want you to hate him. He feels guilty enough.”

 

Rey looks lost in her own thoughts for a moment. She tries to think of the right way to say this. Leia looks at her patiently and then tells her:

 

“Just say it to me the simplest way. I won’t be mad at you, this isn’t your fault in anyway Rey.”

 

Rey looks up and with guilt - Leia notes - starts explaining.

 

“Luke had felt the darkness grow inside of Ben and he didn’t know what to do about it so one night, he went to confront him. By confront him, I mean he went to Ben’s hut with the intention to kill him if he felt too much darkness. When he got there, Ben was too far gone so he raised his lightsaber. But he couldn’t do it. Ben woke up to see his uncle trying to kill him. Snoke had already started making him doubt himself by telling him that Luke was secretly training someone to become the new Skywalker heir, whatever that even means, so he attacked Luke. I was the secret Luke was hiding. So yeah, you could say it was my fault.”

 

Leia stands up quickly and takes Rey hands and with a stern voice says:

 

“Don’t you blame yourself for this Rey. This is in no way your fault. Your father’s mistakes will and should never be your own. I know it’s easy to take the blame for them and people will put the blame on you, trust me. You need to always remember that. I don’t and will never blame you for what Luke did. You are the only family that I have left and I cherish the trust you just gave me. Am I mad at Luke? Yes, he could’ve told me what was happening with Ben and I could have tried to help my son. But at the same time, I think that Snoke’s grip was already too tight on Ben. I have remorse myself for having sent him away. I should have kept him by my side. He was always an insecure child and Han and I aways had to tell him he could be whatever he wanted to be. That he had no name to live up to. I guess we were not convincing enough.”

 

“I think you did everything you could have done. He just didn’t want to be saved Leia.”

 

“I could say the same thing to you Rey,” she answers with affection.

 

The two woman settle into a comfortable silence for a while. It occurs to Rey that even if Luke is technically dead, she has a family now.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And Poe has arrived! I want their relationship to be built on trust so I decided to write them as being comfortable with each other immediately. Thank you for reading!

After a couple hours of doing random jumps in and out of Hyperspace to make sure they were not followed by the First Order, they decided to head to Akiva. Being in the Outer Rim and a jungle planet, not to mention the support the planet had given the New Republic after the Battle of Endor, made it a smart choice. Rey landed the Falcon in a small clearing away from any major cities. For now, Leia had decided to keep the Resistance hidden. They had sent a team to the capital, Myrra, to try to get some food and supplies. After making sure the Falcon was fine, with the help of R2D2 and Chewbacca, Rey walks down the ramp and joins the others outside. They are all sitting around a fire, listening to Leia speak. Rey decides to sit beside Finn. He had only stepped off the Falcon when the medical officer, doctor Kalonia, had told him that Rose was going to be carefully monitored. After both greeting each other with a brief look, they both turn their attention to Leia. She is giving out orders for the patrol tonight. When she asks if there is a volunteer for the first shift, the pilot who had introduced himself to Rey earlier stands up.

 

“I’ll take the first watch General.”

 

Leia looks at him worriedly and then asks:

 

“Would anybody like to take the shift with Commander Dameron?”

 

A brief look of shock settles on the man’s face and Rey hopes its not because he is insulted by Leia giving him a partner. Deciding she was probably not going to sleep anyway, Rey stands up.

 

“I can do it General.”

 

“Are you sure Rey, you just saved us a couple hours ago and flew us here, you should rest.”

 

“It’s fine, I want to stay outside anyway.”

 

“Okay then, Rey and Poe will take the first watch. Who wants to take the second?” Chewbacca and a woman volunteer for the second watch.

 

“Great the rest of you will get back on the ship. It rains often on this planet and I don’t want anybody to be sick. We don’t have the time to deal with that.”

 

With a quick “Yes General” and a goodnight from Leia, everybody heads back into the Falcon. Rey and Commander Dameron also go inside, but only to grab their rain gear and weapons. Rey shrugs into her poncho and keeps the hood down for now, she slings her staff across her back and holsters the blaster that Han had given her before she goes back outside. The Commander is leaning on a tree looking up at the sky. Rey goes up to him .

 

“ Hi Commander Dameron.” He looks down at her and smiles.

 

“You can call me Poe. I’m not sure anybody should be calling me Commander anyway…” 

 

Rey gives him a curious look. Why would he say that? Sensing her question, he answers her.

 

“Leia demoted me not long ago for my stupid decisions. She just promoted me for no reason.”

 

“If you don’t mind me asking, what did you do?” Rey knew what happened as Leia had told her earlier but, she felt that he needed to get it of his chest.

“I got a lot of people under my command killed, that’s what I did. I should have gone back to our cruiser immediately.” Poe surprises himself. He doesn’t know why he is telling her all of this. He usually isn’t this open with anyone.

 

“Care to elaborate on that Poe?” She hopes she isn’t too pushy.

 

“If I had not wanted to take that Dreadnought down so much, more people would be with us right now. My own pride got them killed.”

 

“But if you hadn’t done that, wouldn’t it have followed you in Hyperspace like the rest of them and then killed you all?” She asks. Poe stops walking for a moment.

 

“I never thought of that. I guess I did the right thing. Still, I should have listened to my commanding officer.”

 

“At least you know you did something wrong.”

 

“Yeah, then I started a mutiny so… Gods I’m sorry, I’m dumping all my problems on you,” he says shocked by his honesty.

 

“It’s fine Poe, you are probably the first person, beside Finn, to speak to me like I’m another person not a great Jedi.”

 

“You are a great Jedi.” 

 

“I’m not sure I want to be,” she whispers. Rey is also quite shocked by her honesty.

 

Poe looks back at her and realizes something. From what he had been told by BB8 and Finn, Rey didn’t really have a choice to join the war, unlike him. Guilt fills his gut when it hits him. This is all his fault. If he had managed to get the map, Rey wouldn’t have found BB-8 and would not have been forced to leave Jakku and fight. She would be back there, safe. Her hand comes to rest on his elbow and stops him from spiralling even farther.

 

“It’s not your fault Poe.”

 

He starts to panic. Thinking she is breaking into his mind, he flinches back a little and a scared look sets upon his face. Rey grabs her staff and asks:

 

“What’s wrong?”

 

“Did you… did you just break into my mind?”

 

“No of course not, I would never do that. Never.” Her look goes blank for a second. Her mind goes back to the first time Kylo tried to torture her. Her face twist in pain when her mind flashes back to the throne room when Snoke had suspended her in the air and made her feel pain like she had never felt before.

 

“He did it to you too…” he whispers. A sympathetic smile makes it way across Rey’s face, as a tear slips down her cheek. He steps back closer to Rey, knowing that someone who had gone through what they both did would never do it to another person.

 

“He tried. But… Snoke is the one who succeeded. He ripped my mind apart. He wanted to know were Master Luke was hiding. I wasn’t strong enough to stop him. I didn’t know that Kylo tortured you. And I’m sorry. I just felt your guilt in the Force. I assumed you were thinking that it was your fault what happened to me. You were not very good at hiding it.” She mumbles the last sentence.

 

“I haven’t told anyone.”

 

“What?”

 

“I couldn’t tell them about it. He managed to get the information out of me. If you hadn’t found BB, they would have found Luke. It would have broken Leia’s heart to know about it.”

 

“If you want, you can talk to me,” Rey says with a kind voice.

 

“Thank you Rey.”

 

“Just so you know, I don’t think Leia would’ve been mad at you. She cares a lot about you.” 

 

And with that, they finish their shift comfortably talking about droids and ships, two subject, they find out, they also have in common. When they go back to the Falcon, Poe walks Rey to the Captain’s quarter that she is sharing with the General. He tells her goodnight and thank you. When she closes the door, he notices he hasn’t been this calm in a while. He walks back to is assigned spot and sits beside his trusted droid. BB-8 asks his master how patrol went. For some reason, Poe tells him this:

 

“You are right Buddy, she is great.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote a prom night AU if you want to check it out! It's called Be Patient, Your Moment Will Come.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luke and Rey have a talk about adapting to the new attention she's getting and the responsibilities she now has. We learn something new about Poe while him and Rey are on patrol again.

For the next couple of days, Rey works on meditating and the Falcon. The poor ship’s time on Jakku did not do it any good. She also assigns a spot for the stowaway porgs away from any important part of the ship. The team that had gone into the city had come back with a good amount of food and medical supplies. Leia had even managed to make contact with somebody on Naboo, meaning that they are leaving in a day or two for the planet. Rey decides to take another patrolling shift tonight, wanting to enjoy the warm jungle climate and trees since she doesn’t know what Naboo’s climate will be like. She finds that she enjoys this type of temperature very much. It’s warm like she is used to yet, to her astonishment, it rains a lot. Not to mention her new favourite activity, meditating up in a tree where no one can bother her or stare at her. It’s actually what she is doing right now. She feels something pull in her mind and when she opens her eyes, Luke is sitting on the branch in front of her. Rey feels a smile creep on her face.

“Hi.”

“Well hello, there,” he says with an amused tone.

“How are you doing?” She asks worriedly.

“I’m fine Rey, more than I’ve been in a while. And if you don’t mind me asking, I don’t remember raising an Ewok,” he says teasingly. Rey’s confused look makes him remember that his daughter was not given the opportunity to have a great education or travel a lot.

“Ewoks are a species that live in trees. I meant to ask you what you are doing in a tree.”

“Oh, I’m meditating. I’m trying to get better at connecting to the Force.”

“I get that, but why do it up here,” he inquires. Rey hesitates to answer but she decides that being honest is the best option.

“I don’t like the attention. As soon as I do something slightly related to the Force, everybody just looks at me like they’re expecting something amazing from me. Nobody spots me when I’m up here, it’s peaceful.”

Luke isn’t sure what to answer her. In a way, he understands how she feels. When he had joined the Rebellion, people were always looking to him for answers he didn’t have and when the New Republic was formed, they all expected him to take part in the whole political side of things. He remembers one time, at a diner with some senators Leia had obligated him to attend, an aide had almost dropped a plate of food, but he had caught it using the Force. The next thing he knew, the senators were standing up and applauding him. If he looked too concentrated people would ask him if he was having a vision. That’s why he decided to build his temple away from everything: to make sure the younglings he trained wouldn’t be pressured into joining the army or any political party. He knows he has to be blunt with Rey because, the quicker she gets used to it, the more efficient she will become.

“I know but you will have to get used to it Rey. They will never stop being curious about you. You are the last of us. For them, especially with that rock stunt you did on Crait, you are hope. I wish you didn’t have to be, but you are.” 

“Will you help me do it? I don’t even know what is sociably acceptable. I’m going to fail, I don’t even know what they expect from me. I don’t want to be the reason the Resistance fails.”

“Rey you already saved the Resistance once. And what did you do to do it?”

“ I came as soon as I could to get them to safety. I had to make sure the TIE fighters were out of the sky so they had a chance to survive”

“Did you have to use the Force for that?”

“No, not until I had to lift the rocks.”

“There you go, you don’t have to be “The Jedi”. You can be a pilot. You saw in the vision that’s mostly what I did. Of course, one day you will have to face Kylo but, then again, he is also a pilot. Your final battle could be a lightsaber duel or in the skies. Who knows? You get to decide what you are Rey, nobody else gets to choose for you.”

“I need someone to show me my place in all this.”

“You don’t need anybody to do that Rey, you need to make it for yourself. Make your own place in this on your own terms. I trust you to make the right choice. You are smarter and more brave than you believe. Trust in the Force and the Force will trust you.” 

Luke starts to fade away during that sentence and Rey is left alone with her own thoughts for a while. She feels relieved that her father does not expect her to be the representation of the Jedi. It’s not what she wants to be or do. She wants to help and bring peace to the Galaxy. Obviously, if that requires her to use the Force and a lightsaber, she will do it. Then, with a small chuckle, she remembers: it would be useful if she had a functioning lightsaber. That’s a matter for another time she tells herself. 

 

Rey is startled when she hears someone call up to her.

“What are you doing up there? Thinking of new ways to make my droid fall more in love with you and leave me?”

Rey looks down at a smiling Poe Dameron. She jumps down the tree using the Force to soften her landing. Poe doesn’t even look surprised and hands her a bottle of water. Rey takes a sip of it and answers with a smirk.

“I think I may have succeeded already, Dameron.”

“Great, I will have to bribe him with another maintenance.”

“No need to, I did that this morning.”

“I’m never going to be his favourite person again.” 

Rey looks back at him and is surprised by feeling a bit of sadness from Poe.

“You really care for BB-8, don’t you?”

“Yeah. I know it’s a bit weird, I sometime feel like he his my child or something. I am one of the only cadet that built their own droid back at the Academy. I programmed him and everything. Making sure he is fine is my job and with the rate this war is going, he is the closest thing to a kid I will ever have anyway.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t take him away from you. I am actually planning on doing some upgrades on R2D2 to make him a bit more up to date. I want him to be my flight companion just like BB-8 does for you.”

“I was kidding you know, I really don’t mind if BB-8 spends time with you. I know you just like hanging out with droids more than people. Don’t worry I’m not judging you, I enjoy my droid’s presence more than life forms too,” he says with a kind laugh.

“Why is that, everybody likes you Poe?”

“Contrary to popular beliefs, I actually hate being the center of attention. The only thing I ever wanted was to be a pilot like my mother. Turns out I’m pretty good at flying anything. Next thing I knew, they gave me the command of a squadron and I’m one of the youngest captain in the history of the fleet. It also doesn’t help that the General is my godmother.”

“What?” Rey interrupts him.

“My mother was Leia’s pilot for a while and my dad was a Pathfinder under General Solo’s command during the Rebellion. My parents never really made it public but, when people learn about it, they assume I can get them in the General’s good grace.”

“Do you think you could help me with something, Poe?” Poe stops walking and with a disappointed look tells her:

“I don’t think you need my help to get on Leia’s good side Rey.”

“No no no, I didn’t mean about that. It’s just BB-8’s programming and structure is really impressive and I was wondering, since you enjoy working with droids, if you could maybe help me a bit with R2?”

Poe smiles excitedly and quickly answers.

“You are offering me to work on the legendary droid that helped destroy the first Death Star? Really, it would be an honour Rey.”

It suddenly starts to rain and Poe looks up enjoying the feeling on his face.

“You enjoy the rain too.”

“The planet I grew up on was similar. Thick jungle and all. I miss it there. I hope one day I get to retire there.”

“I hope you get to Poe, I really do.”

They finish their patrol with no problems and like the last time, Poe walks her to her quarter and wishes her a peaceful night . Only, on this night, Rey would not be graced with a peaceful slumber.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! I hope that nobody minds that I made Leia Poe's godmother. To be honest, I've seen it in a lot of other fics and I found it really sweet and nice. Also, wrote a follow up to my modern AU. It's called You Are My Sunshine!


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey has an unpleasant experience and goes missing while she goes out to clear her mind. Poe goes looking for her.

As soon as Rey falls asleep, she feels suffocated. Something is trying to get into her head. She knows it’s not her father as his presence is soothing and calming. She tries to wake up, but she doesn’t succeed . She looks around at her surroundings and deduces that she is back on Starkiller Base. Except, nobody is there and everything looks a bit fuzzy. She walks to the front of the room where some kind of altar is set up. She recognizes the mask from her visions. It belongs to Darth Vader. She touches it and that’s when she feels him arriving. He appears before her.

“Rey.”

“Kylo.”

“What did you do to me?”

“You are getting stronger in the Force Rey, but you can’t hide from me. I sensed your presence and I came to you. Tell me where you are, tell me and I will come and get you. You can rule beside me. We can build a new empire.”

“I told you I don’t want to rule anything, I only want to help!”

“Then help me! You belong with me Rey!”

“I don’t belong to anyone!”

“You asked me to show me your place in all this! Your place is beside me!”

“I belong with the Resistance not with you!”

“You are nothing to them, Rey,” he yells back at her.

“And I don’t need to be,” she whispers.

Her sudden change of attitude surprises him. She uses that moment to her advantage. She concentrates and the world around them starts shifting. It transforms into the deserts of Jakku. Kylo tries to regain his composure, but Rey can see that the lost of control is scaring him. Rey uses most of the energy she has left and tells him:

“You don’t have the right to disturb me anymore. I don’t want you and never will. Goodbye.”

Kylo is thrown back into the Force and Rey wakes up. She throws herself off the bunk and lands on the floor. She pants, trying to get her heart to beat at a normal pace. She lies on her back, the cool metal of the floor grounding her. She thinks she just managed to get rid of Kylo Ren for good. A small sight escapes her lips and she is interrupted.

“Rey, are you alright?”

Rey opens her eyes, her hand quickly grabbing the blaster she keeps by her side at all times. She only lowers it when she realizes that it’s only Leia towering over her, looking concerned. Rey picks herself off the floor and sits back on her bed. She runs her hand in her hair, which is now soaked with sweat.

“I’m fine Leia.”

“Are you trying to convince me or yourself Rey?” Leia answers with a knowing look.

“Just a nightmare, I’m going to go for a walk outside.”

“Rey, you just took a shift, you need to rest. I can stay up with you if you want.”

“I just want to be outside for a while.”

“Okay, if you need anything Rey, you can always ask me.”

And with a small nod of her head, Rey picks up her staff and her poncho and she steps off the Falcon. The warm breeze of the night caresses her cheeks while she walks to the tree line. Looking at her chrono on her wrist, she decides that she has the time to leave camp and explore for bit. She runs her hand in the foliage and enjoys feeling as small droplets of water hit her feet. The ambient noises of the wildlife helps calm her nerves and she finally starts relaxing. She reaches out into the Force just like Luke had shown her on the island and tries to find the balance. She sits down in the mossy ground and meditates.

 

Back at camp, the day begins. The few soldiers left eat breakfast together and banter while the General gets ready for today’s briefing. Finn is with Rose, who woke up during the night. When Leia starts speaking she looks around and fails to spot Rey. She stops talking suddenly. 

“Where is Rey?”  
Everybody starts looking around, not moving from their seat. Poe, who just got up even if had barely slept four hours walks up to them.

“We came back from our patrol and I walked her to your shared quarters myself General.”

“I know that Commander but she went for a walk during the night. Did you see her leave camp?” She questions the team that was in charge for the second shift. They mumble their apologies when they answer that they didn’t even see her when she left the Falcon. Poe turns around and runs towards the tree he knows Rey loves hiding in. When he turns back, everybody is looking at him with a questioning look.

“What?”

“Did you just look for Rey in a tree Commander?” A pilot under his command asks. Poe rubs his hand on the back of his neck, ignoring the question.

“General, permission to go into the jungle and find her?”

“Permission granted. You have four hours to get back to camp and if you do not find her, we will decide what to do. Understood?”

“Yes General.” 

Poe jogs back to the Falcon and grabs everything he could need. Weapon? Check. comm? Check. Rations and water? Check. He decides to leave BB-8 behind. He puts on his jacket since the weather is cold for the first time since they’ve been on Akiva. Just before he leaves the ship, he grabs a blanket and stuffs it in his pack, not knowing what state Rey will be in if - no when, he reassures himself - he finds her. He decides to head in the direction her favourite tree, assuming that she had come outside to meditate but, chose to keep walking instead. He walks at a good pace, making sure he isn’t too loud, remembering the training his father gave him. He tries to look around for tracks, but the almost permanent rainfall on the planet makes it impossible for him to find anything. He leans against the tree panicking slightly. What if he doesn’t find her? Is she okay? Did somebody take her? Is she hurt? He suddenly snaps out of his panicked state when he fees a pull towards a certain direction. He starts walking slowly towards it and when he spots Rey sitting in the mud, soaking wet he sprints towards her. He slides on his knees in front of her.

“Rey?! Rey?!” He shakes her shoulder a bit, but she doesn’t wake up. He grabs her wrist, noting that she is extremely cold, searching for a pulse and, when he does in fact find it, he lets out a breath he didn’t even know he was holding in. He tries to shake her awake a couple of times, which doesn’t work. He picks up his comm and calls camp.

“This is Black Leader do you copy, over?”

“Loud and clear Black Leader. Did you find her? Over.”

“Affirmative but she is in some kind of trance. She’s not responsive. I am going to stand guard until she wakes up. Over.”

“This is the General. Did you just say she was in a trance?.”

“Yes, I can’t wake her up.”

“Okay, stand by her side until she comes back to us.”

“Understood. Over and out.”

Poe sits in front of Rey, in the mud, not caring if he gets himself dirty and gets the blanket out of his backpack. He wraps her in it and brushes her hair out of her face. He leans back on a tree, fully alert and waits for her to come back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading. Honestly, Kylo is not even going to be a obstacle in Poe and Rey's relationship so, if I decide to write a bump in the relationship it won't be because Rey has feelings for Kylo. The abusive nature of Kylo's interest in Rey does not make want to romanticize it.


	7. Chapter 7

Rey opens her eyes and panics for a second. She doesn’t know where she is again. Is she back in Kylo’s weird dream again? No, this is too peaceful to belong to him. She stands up and looks around. The only thing she sees is an endless body of water. It’s not deep, maybe one or two inches. She looks up at the sky which looks as if there is an eternal sunset. The shades of orange are blending with a light shade of purple and yellow. It is truly beautiful she tells herself. She starts walking and with every steps she takes she feels more and more at peace. She walks towards nothing for while, the sound of her feet slapping the water her only companion. She stops when she sees a figure appearing before her. It doesn’t feel like anybody she knows it the Force. It’s a woman. She looks familiar. 

“Mama?” 

The woman doesn’t seem to notice her at all. Rey circles her, trying to get her attention. She splashes some water at her, but it doesn’t even get her wet. 

“She can’t see you Rey.”

Rey turns around quickly, ready to fight whoever is there. She lowers her guard. It’s Luke. He has a sympathetic look on his face. He holds out his hand to her. She takes it in her own.

“Where am I Papa?.”

“You managed to put yourself in a trance. You used to do that when you got to stressed about something.”

“Why can’t she see me? Am I not connected to the Force enough?”

“You are connected to the Force that thrives on the planet, not to your mother. I can only come to you because I learnt how to do it from the Jedi texts and I am quite strong with the Force. You also have my  
Kyber crystal that tethers you to me.”

“That makes sense. I will work on getting stronger I promise.”

“I know you will Rey.”

Rey starts to shiver and Luke looks at her worriedly.

“Where were you when you got into your trance Rey?”

“I was sitting down in the forest somewhere. Why?”

“You need to wake up. Your body is getting too cold.”

“How do I even do that?”

“Concentrate on something specific instead of everything like you are doing right now.”

Rey closes her eyes and tries to find something to focus on. She stops on a familiar feeling. It’s the same from the night she found out Luke was her father. She narrows her mind on it and tries to make her way back to it. She grasp onto it and pulls herself out of her trance.

———————————————————————————————-----------------------------------------------------------------

Poe is really starting to worry. Rey’s lips are now blue and she is visibly shaking. He doesn’t know what to do. The only thing he knows for sure is that he will need to pick her up and carry her if she doesn’t wake up soon. He decides enough is enough and goes to pick her up and, as soon as he touches her, her eyes snap open. Before she falls on her side, Poe catches her and gathers her in his arm. She breaths heavily for a couple of seconds, holding Poe’s arm tightly. He let’s her take her time before he talks. After a couple of minutes, Rey’s breathing has slowed down, but she still doesn’t seem responsive at all. Poe gently cups her face in his hands, brushing her hair out of her eyes.

“I’m going to pick you up now. We’re going back to the Falcon. Is that okay with you?”

Rey slowly shakes her head telling him he could. Poe picks her up and cradles her to his chest. He makes sure the blanket is secured around her and starts walking back to the camp. She feels light in his arms and he looks down at her. She looks really young when she is sleeping. She is young he reminds himself. He doesn’t even know how old she is. He pushes that idea out of his mind and concentrates on his task. He walks in the pouring rain carefully, making sure not to slip in the mud.

After about an hour of walking, they make it to camp, Rey still asleep in his arms. He almost drops her when someone suddenly yells. 

“They’re back!”

Leia walks out of the Falcon, Doctor Kalonia at her heels. They husher them inside and quickly head to Rey’s bunk. Poe gently lays her down and stands back, letting the doctor do her job. Poe slides down on the opposite wall, the fatigue of sitting in the cold rain and carrying Rey catching up to him. He takes his soaked jacket off and shakes his head, trying to get some of the water out of his curls. Leia hands him a towel and wraps him in a thick blanket and whispers: “Good job Commander.” Poe nods and keeps his eyes on Rey while the medical team do their jobs. He hears the words exhaustion and hypothermia, the latter making him panic. Nobody knows for how long Rey was unresponsive, sitting in the cold mud. He starts blaming himself for not having found her and picked her up earlier, instead of waiting for her to wake up. He is brought out of is panic attack when Leia lays her hand softly on his shoulder with a look on her face saying: you couldn’t have done better, you did what you could. He only gets up when Doctor Kalonia assures him that Rey is fine. She will need to rest for a while and stay warm. The doctor also orders him to rest since he was also outside, in the cold, for a long time. As he moves to leave the room, Leia grabs him by the arm and pushes him towards her bunk.

“You are sleeping on a real bed Poe. And no, you don’t get to object.”

It’s only mid day and Poe falls asleep, the sound of Rey’s steady breathing from the other side of the room lulling him to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If anybody is interested, the second part to my Damerey modern AU called You Are My Sunshine is finished. To be honest, I started writing this in April and I had about 17 chapters written of this one before I started the modern AU. So, my writing in it is kinda better ( I started editing the chapters of this one to write my outline of the rest of the story) since I had a bit more experience. I'm going to work on this one at the same time as I write the AU since I'm enjoying it very much. Thank you for reading this!


	8. Chapter 8

Rey drifts out of her sleep confused and extremely warm. She opens her eyes and lifts the five or so blankets that she is tucked under so that she can sit crossed-legged on her bed. She takes the elastic bands that sit on the small table beside her and ties her hair back in it’s usual way. She looks at the time while she finishes the last bun and notices that it’s about time for supper. She jumps a bit when she feels the presence of someone else in the room who is definitely not Leia. She looks to the other side of the room that belongs to the General and the only thing she can see is fluffy black curls peaking out of the covers. She relaxes when her brain puts the pieces together. Poe must have been the one to bring her back. She has the slight recollection of someone picking her up, but nothing after that. He must be exhausted if he had carried her back. She grabs one of the many blankets she has beside her and wraps it around her shoulders, leaning back against the wall of her bunk and picking up the holo-pad Leia had given her so that she can read - Leia had kindly filled it with history books when Rey had asked her- while waiting for Poe to wake up. It’s only fair she tells herself, Poe had probably waited for her to do the same in the cold rain, she will do the same for him in much better conditions. 

About an hour later, Poe starts to stir and Rey looks up from her pad, to stare at his form, still hidden under the covers. He sits up, not noticing she is awake, rubbing his eyes and raking his hand through his wild bed hair and groans when his hand gets caught in a knot.

“Thank you Poe,” Rey startles him even if she had barely whispered. He looks up quickly, hand still stuck in his hair, and stares right back at her for a couple of seconds before he speaks.

“Hi, you’re awake.” 

He feels quite stupid at what he just said - of course she’s awake dumbass she just spoke to you, get your damn hand out of your hair - and relaxes when he sees a smile forming on her face. He likes making her smile like that. He finally untangles his hand and notices that Rey is trying really hard not to laugh at him. It’s worth looking dumb for a couple of seconds if he can make her laugh, he thinks.

“How long did I make you wait for me out there?”

“About three hours, I would say.”

“You should just have left me there,” she responds with what could be guilt or sadness, Poe isn’t sure.

“I would never leave you,” he answers not thinking of the implication of what he just said.

“No one gets left behind. Never, not on my watch. We’ve lost to many to lose more,” he adds, hoping she understands that he would truly never willingly leave her or anybody he cares about.

He doesn’t even know if he could emotionally survive loosing more people. He has been fighting for a long time and Gods does he wish he could rest, truly rest, for a day or two. 

He looks at the chrono on his wrist, and asks Rey if she wants to go eat, and she says yes. They walk out together, and when they do get to they main galley where they all usually eat if it rains outside, everybody quiets down and looks at them. They both just stand there for a couple of seconds, not sure what is going on, until Leia gracefully saves them by clearing her throat and they all go back to what they were doing except Finn, who is sitting beside Rose. He motions them over and they oblige, sitting in front of the pair. Finn introduces Rey to Rose, who thanks her again for saving them, not having had the chance to do it before. The four of them eat their food, chatting amicably about everything and nothing and the same time. Time truly does fly by quickly when you are having fun, Rey muses. People around them start taking their leave including Finn and Rose. Since they have just woken up, they aren’t tired at all. So when Rey proposes to Poe to go to the cockpit so they can keep on talking without disturbing the others, he accepts the offer happily. They go there and Rey sits in her usual spot, the captain’s chair, and Poe settles into Chewie’s. Rey asks him about his time in the Academy and he tells her a bunch of anecdotes including one about a newly built BB-8 rolling into one of his class beeping out profanities in binary. Their laughter is interrupted when Leia walks into the cockpit, very much with what Rey now calls her General look.

“I just got the confirmation from my contact on Naboo, Poe can you set the coordinates for the jump?”

Poe looks at Rey, silently asking her for her permission to touch the controls, and she gives him a small nod of approval.

“Do you want to pilot to Naboo, Poe?” She even asks. She is surprised by the burst of happiness that radiates from him.

“Yes, of course!”

Behind them, Leia settles into her usual spot smiling at her godson that is acting as if he is a young pilot who just got told he could fly a real ship, not a simulator, for the first time. They switch seats and when Rey sees Poe settle back and start up the ship, she understands why they call him the best pilot in the Resistance. He pilots the ship skillfully, almost touching the tree line, to make sure they are not spotted and shoots out of atmo at an impressive speed. He looks at her - that’s when she meets cocky pilot Poe Dameron - and launches into Hyperspace with no difficulty. Since the jump to Naboo will take a while, the three of them spend the time telling stories. Rey finds she enjoys spending time with people, which was not a thing that she thought could even be possible not long ago.


	9. Chapter 9

About two hours into the jump to Naboo, Rey gets up from her seat stating that she wants to stretch a bit and maybe try to use the time before they get to the planet to get some sleep. She rests her hand on Poe’s shoulder for a couple of seconds and takes her leave after doing the same to Leia. Leia gets up and sits beside Poe and looks at him. She sees so much of his mother in him. He is kind and devoted just like Shara was. He also reminds her of Han a bit, sitting at the command of the Falcon, cocky flyboy attitude and all. She wishes he could have been spared from fighting a war. Leia knows Shara’s heart would have broken if she had had to watch her little boy, for whom she had bravely fought for during the Rebellion, fight for is freedom. She recalls a conversation they both had when Leia had told her she was pregnant with Ben. They had talked about how glad they were that their children would live in a free galaxy. Having had Poe during the war, Shara had to be separated from her child for a while before she could retire with Kes on Yavin 4. They were about Poe’s age when they left the army. Leia still feels guilty for having recruited him to the Resistance. At the same time she knows that if she hadn’t, the Resistance would probably not exist. He had been the one to fire the final hit that destroyed Starkiller Base and to get the map to Luke safe, he was the one who brought them Finn and - even she had to admit - if he hadn’t gone through with his Dreadnaught plan, it would have followed the fleet and destroyed them as soon as they got out of Hyperspace. He has accomplished so many missions that were crucial to the survival of the organisation. She feels tired of fighting. She had started the Resistance because she knew she had to do something about the problem everybody in the New Republic ignored. She had just hoped that someday, someone would take the lead after she started the movement. She would have supported and stayed, but she has been fighting for her whole life and has lost a lot on the way. Looking at Poe, she thinks that maybe, just maybe, she could finally do that. She has been training him discreetly - she admits - since she saw him fight for the Resistance for the first time, completely devoted to the cause. He has made a lot of mistakes in his career, but he has now acknowledged them. With Rey, Finn and Connix by his side, he could be ready. She is snapped out of thoughts by Poe.

“Are you okay Leia?”

“I am, I just got lost in my own head for a moment.”

“And what is going on in that head of yours, General?”

“I have been thinking about all of this.”

“All of what?”

“The Resistance”

“What do you mean by that Leia?”

“I never wanted to lead another military organization Poe. I always wanted to be a politician, like my father. Being in the senate of the New Republic, with Han and my son by my side were the happiest days of my life. We had a democracy and we let it slip out of our hands.” She stops talking and makes up her mind.

“I’m relinquishing my command to you Poe.”

He goes to speak, but she cuts him off.

“This has been my plan since the first day you joined. I am tired and too old. I will stay with you and help, but I cannot lead anymore. You are ready. I am proud of what you have become.”

“I don’t deserve this General, give the command to Connix, not me.”

“Connix is good at organizing and communicating. You are good at leading. People follow you, they respect and trust you. You know ground and sky tactics. You have surrounded yourself with people you can trust back. I am leaving you my command Poe Dameron and you will believe in yourself just like I believe in you.”

She looks back at Poe and sees a tear rolling down his cheek. She places her hand on each side of his face and let’s herself cry.

“You brave, brave boy. You will be great. I am proud to call you my godson.”

“I will honour the work you have all done. The Rebels and all. I will do this in the memory of everyone we have lost. For my mother and for Han. And for you. I will try my hardest to even do the job half as good as you do it. I promise.”

“I will announce it when we get to Naboo. You will take the lead from now on.”

“Thank you for trusting me General.”

“You will have to call me Leia from now on Poe.”

“You will always be the General to me.” He says solemnly.

  
When they reach Naboo, before they go planet side, Leia summons everybody to the main area. Rey and Finn both shoot a curious look at Poe when they see him stand beside Leia, hands behind is back and looking serious.

“I have something to tell all of you. Something that I have been thinking about for some time.” She stop speaking and takes a deep breath, knowing the impact of the words she is about to say. How they will change Poe’s life.

“I am relinquishing my command of the Resistance -” Before she can finish her sentence, people start to stand up and telling her that she can do that, that they can’t do this without her. She lifts her hand and they all quiet down.

“My last act as General is to relinquish my command to Poe Dameron.”

She had expected them to react to that, but they all stay silent, looking at Poe beside her. He is standing quietly beside her, looking straight ahead, emotions indiscernable. Then, a pilot starts applauding and, soon enough, everybody is. They all come up to him, some shaking his hand, others - mostly pilots, she notes - clap him on the back. Leia stands back and her heart fills with pride at the sight. She waits a couple of minutes before interrupting the celebration. With a smile she asks:

“Now, what do we do General Dameron?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait between the updates I didn't have access to my computer for a week. Thank you for reading!


	10. Chapter 10

Poe tells them his plan to set up base and gives everybody their tasks. Leia and him, will go into Theed to meet with her contact while the rest of them will set up base at Padmé Amidala’s summer home. Poe had chosen that spot, with Leia’s input, since most people didn’t even know it existed and, those who did, were afraid of going there because of it’s ties with Darth Vader. It also helps that the grounds of the house are big enough to accommodate all of them and even more. At first, he thought that it was dangerous to settle on such a big planet, but at the same time nobody would look for them there. He also felt a bit stupid since he was leaving with Leia and they represent the leadership, but he was reminded by her that her contacts would be insulted if they did not meet with the leader. He still had packed a good amount of weapons on him and ordered BB-8, which would come with them, to be alert and scan around for any sign of danger. They will leave when the sun goes down, the cover of darkness making him feel a bit more secure. 

 

After the General - no the Generals, or General, Rey is still a bit confused about what just happened - leave, Rey focuses on helping everybody settle into the house. She thinks the word house doesn’t do it justice. The building is huge. She had called it a palace when they had arrived and Leia had told her that she wished she could have shown her the one on Alderaan. Leia, Chewie, Poe, Finn, Connix, Rose and her all have a room in the same wing of the building. They decided to set up the command room in one of the many dinning room in the house and after she made sure everything was fine, Rey steps outside and walks to the big balcony behind the house. She leans on the bannister, gazing at the beautiful lake in front of her. The air around her is warm and she feels at peace. She senses something shift in the Force around her. Someone is coming and it’s not her father or Kylo - she notes - and the person coming is clearly powerful. She turns around and looks at the man who is sitting on the bench. He has brown hair that reach is shoulders and a scar on his right eye. He is dressed in dark brown robes and leather black gloves. She knows him. He is the first boy from her visions. It’s Anakin Skywalker, Darth Vader and her grandfather. His Force signature is confusing, he feels like darkness and light, balanced and unbalanced, happy and sad at the same time. Rey isn’t sure if he can see or hear her. 

 

“Hello Rey.” Okay he can, she realizes getting nervous.

 

“You don’t have to be nervous around me.” He can read my mind too, she also realizes.

 

“I’m not reading your mind if that is what you are thinking. You simply looked scared for a moment.” He tells her with reassuring smile. Rey relaxes a bit at that and comes closer to him.

 

“How can you see me, the only other person I have been able to talk to his Luke?”

 

“Not to float my own ship, but I am quite powerful in the Force.” He chuckles. “Also, I’m strongly connected to this place, this is where I married my wife. I loved it here.” 

 

“It’s beautiful, all of it.” Rey adds and sits beside him.

 

“How are you doing Rey?”

 

“I’m doing better. I’m getting there slowly. It’s a bit much. One day I’m a slave in a desert and suddenly I’m someone people look to for orders. I guess you know how I feel. At least I didn’t have to leave anybody behind like you did.”

 

“It is much, isn’t it. Luke had to go trough the same thing. I guess it’s a Skywalker thing. I’m glad I am able to finally speak to one of my grandchild.” Rey is a bit shocked at that.

 

“You mean you haven’t tried to speak to Kylo. You are his idol, he’s doing this for you, you could have stopped him.”

 

“Oh, I tried to when he started to go to the dark side, but as you can probably feel, my signature is from the light side, so he blocks me out. I don’t even think he knows that it’s me. I couldn’t talk to him before because he wasn’t strong enough and when he did get strong enough, he had already gone to the dark side.”

 

“I’m sorry that I assumed you hadn’t.”

 

“It’s fine, I probably would have jumped to the same conclusion to be honest. I’m just glad that I get to talk to you Rey. I might not be able to help him, but I can help you.”

 

“How can you help me?”

 

“My son is an amazing Jedi, but he did not get the training I had. Yoda did teach him well with the time he had and he is a great fighter, but I had years of training. When my wife told me she was pregnant, I was was thrilled by the idea of training my child in the way of the Force. I was planning on leaving the Order so I could be with them without hiding. As you know, I never got to train either of them. I would have liked to help Luke with his new temple, but I knew that he didn’t want or really needed my help and I respected that. I don’t deserve or expect their forgiveness. But, I hope you let me have the chance to help you Rey.”

 

Rey thinks about it. This man is one of the greatest Sith that ever existed and one of the greatest Jedi at the same time. He confuses her a lot since she can still feel a bit of darkness from him. At the same time, Luke did forgive him and she knows how easy it is to be tempted by the Dark side. She also knows she has to learn more about the Force and the ancient Jedi text were a bit to strict, she doesn’t want to make the same mistakes the old masters made. She also knows from her visions that Anakin is a formidable fighter, one of the best, and that she will have to face Kylo, who is also skilled, at some point. She also knows she doesn’t have a lightsaber or a clue how to make one. 

 

“I would appreciate your help. The first thing I need is a lightsaber, I’m sorry I broke yours.”

 

“Getting you a new lightsaber, and one made for you, is a priority, I agree. You will need a new crystal to start.”

 

“Where can I find one? I know Starkiller Base was built on a planet with a lot of Kyber crystals, but we blew it up.”

 

“When I was a Jedi, I had the habit of loosing my lightsaber a lot. Once, when I went to get a new crystal, I got called by three of them. I had assumed that the Force knew I would probably lose mine again, so it gave me a couple spares. When I learned that Padmé was pregnant, and I do seem to have made a lot of decisions about that, I gave her the two spare. One to protect her and on to protect my child. They put them with her when she died. They are in the royal crypt. Now, I wouldn’t appreciate if someone broke into my wife’s resting place to steal them, but I’ll make an exception for my granddaughter. They will stay in the family and that is all that is of importance to me.”

 

“Okay, I will get ready and go tonight.”

 

Anakin explains to Rey how to get into the crypt, he has been visiting it since he died. They bid each other goodbye and Rey goes into a room that was locked previously - Anakin had told her the code, it’s where he use to work on droids and speeders when he came here with Padmé - and gets on a speeder. There is only one problem: she forgot, again, to tell anybody she was leaving.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Force Ghost Anakin has arrived! Thank you for reading!


	11. Chapter 11

Poe and Leia ride quietly into the city. When they arrive close to the intended destination, Poe lifts his eyebrow, silently telling Leia : We’re going into the palace? She nods and they both step out of the speeder and they walk up to a door. Leia knocks and somebody opens it. They go in, BB-8 following them closely. They are lead into a small room where there is two couches and the man who brought them in motions them to sit saying that the meeting will start soon. About five minutes after they sat down, a woman walks in, a man following closely behind - that’s a bodyguard, Poe guesses - and Poe gets up from his seat, not wanting to insult his hosts. When he steps in front of Leia, they both look at him curiously. He decides to introduce himself since nobody is talking.

“I’m General Poe Dameron of the Resistance, thank you for agreeing to this meeting.”

“I am Queen Soruna of Naboo and this is the captain of my royal guard. Hello Leia, last time we spoke, you were the general.”

“I was, but I gave my command to the very capable Poe Dameron over here.”  
“It’s good to meet you General Dameron.”

“And it is an honour to meet you Queen Soruna,” Poe answers with a small bow, remembering his diplomatic training. He is glad to see the captain relax, probably liking the respectful tone of the greeting.

“Shall we sit down?” The queen asks.

Poe nods and sits back down, noticing that the captain has simply moved to stand beside the couch. They start speaking about the situation of the First Order and how they are basically on the run, their numbers down.

“You are welcome to stay on Naboo as long as there is no First Order activity in close proximity to our system. I am on your side personally, but I must appear neutral for the sake of my people. You are lucky that I ordered two X-wings last year and that none of my pilots took to them. I will give them to you.”

“Thank you very much for you generosity. I am offering my promise of helping to protect Naboo, should it be attacked, but I fear the state of my army and our numbers would probably not help much.”

At that, the queen gives him a smirk.

“If you fly your ship half as good as your mother did, I’m sure you alone could help a lot General Dameron.” Both women in the room look at each other fondly, and Poe decides ask Leia about why the Queen knows about is mother later.

“Thank you very much,” he still adds, not wanting to be impolite.

“My captain will lead you to the hangar bay were you can take the X-wings. Leia I know you married a pilot, but are you able to fly the other one?”

“My droid will fly the second one. Leia will take the speeder back.”

“You can pilot an X-wing without the assistance of a droid?” The captain asks, surprised.

“I can fly anything,” Poe answers, maybe a bit to much proudly.

Leia and the Queen chuckle at that and they bid each other goodbye. Poe makes sure Leia safely leaves in the speeder, with an open com channel so they can speak each other, before he follows the captain to the hangar. Poe is basically shaking from excitement of getting back in a X-wing. He had thought they would have to buy new ships later when the Resistance was more stable. He was even thinking of stealing some since he knows they need at least a small fleet if they want to survive. He loads BB-8 into the first one and orders him to take it back to base. He then gets himself into the other one. He starts it up and, since he notices the captain is still watching him, he shoots out of the hangar at an impressive speed. He is still a cocky pilot after all.

 

When they get back to the lake house, after testing the new ships a bit since it is night time and they have cover from the clouds, Poe lands the X-wing in the fields, beside the Falcon, BB-8 following closely behind him. He climbs down his new ship and unloads his droid. When he walks back to the house, Leia is waiting for him.

“Good job General,” she tells him.

“You could have told me your contact was the Queen.”

“I wanted to see how you would react. You did well. Want to show our Jedi what you managed to get us?”

“Yes, she told me she would like to fly one.”

They walk to their wing of the house and Poe knocks on Rey’s door. She doesn’t answer so Poe tries again with no success. He looks at Leia and she opens the door telling him to wait outside in case Rey is sleeping or in the bathroom. Leia comes out a minute later with a worried look.

“She’s not in her room. Let’s go see in the Command Center, maybe she is waiting for us there,” Leia says to try to reassure him . She knows that if Rey was in there, she would have seen Poe land the X-wing and joined him in the field before he he’d even finished the shut down sequence.

They quickly walk to the the room and when they don’t find her there, Poe starts to panic a bit. He looks out the window, to see if she’s on the balcony that overlooks the lake. Still not there and there are no trees for her to hide in. They split up and to look around the base. About ten minutes later Leia coms him.

“Poe come to the basement in the west wing.”

He sprints down the hall and the stairs and sees Leia talking to R2D2 beside a big metal door. He slows down and walks up to them when he notices that Rey is not with them.

“She left again Poe. She got into that room and apparently left. She only told R2 to wait for her.”

“We have to go looking for her Leia!” He turns around intending to run up the stairs, but he is stopped by Leia.

“We can’t Poe, the sun is coming up and we can’t be seen until we are sure it’s safe for us. She wasn’t panicked like she was the other night when we left, I’m sure she is fine. We will have to wait for her to come back I’m afraid,” she says with a soft tone, hoping that what she just said is true.

Poe would like to argue, but he knows Leia is right so he tells her to go rest and that he will wait for Rey to come back. Leia gives him a sad smile and leaves. Poe brings a chair and sits in front of the door. 

 

Once again, he waits for Rey to come back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! I chose the last known Queen of Naboo (on Wookipedia) since I hate not naming characters and this character has a backstory with Shara Bey (Poe's mom). I think it's nice for him to have somebody else than Leia and his friends trust and have confidence in him. By the way I assumed that an astro-mech can fly without a pilot if there's no complicated maneuvers needed. Same goes for Poe flying his x-wing without a droid. Obviously he's the best pilot in the galaxy, but he usually has BB to help him. I also think that Nabooian pilots would be impressed by that since like we see in the prequels, they have like 6 droids in their small cruisers. Thank you all for reading!


	12. Chapter 12

Rey gets to the Royal Crypts in about an hour and when she gets close to the entrance, she spots a group of guards. She really doesn’t want to be arrested trying to sneak into the tomb of one of Naboo’s most beloved leader to steal her jewels. Thankfully, after many years of climbing fallen Star Destroyers, Rey easily climbs the side of the building and enters it using a window. She is glad that she brought a flashlight with her since it’s pitch black inside. She walks around for a while, looking at all the statues of Naboo’s fallen kings and queens. The energy of the room gives her the chills so she decides to hurry up and find Padmé’s resting place quickly. She looks around trying to find it for a couple of minutes until she is scared by her father who is standing beside what she is looking for.

“Kriff, Luke you scared me!” She half whispers half yells.

“What are you doing here Rey?”

“I came to get the Kyber crystals that Padmé was put to rest with.”

“How do you even know that there are crystals in there? I didn’t even know until now, I can feel their energy.”  
“Anakin told me to come and get them,” she answers without really thinking about how her father would react.

“You talked to him? What did he tell you?” Luke inquires.

Rey doesn’t want to lie to her father, but she also doesn’t want to deal with the whole “I may have accepted Darth Vader’s offer to help me train” situation. So she decides to play with words a bit.

“I was thinking about my training and he appeared so asked him where I could find a new Kyber crystal and he told me I could take the one that he gave his wife since they would stay in the family. I didn’t think you would mind.”

“It’s fine Rey, I know there is good in him. Now are you going to disturb my mother’s resting place or are you just going to stand here and get caught?” 

“It feels weird to do this. She is my grandmother after all and I don’t want to disrespect her,” Rey says before using the Force to open the door to Padmé’s tomb room. 

Rey walks in quietly, Luke following her silently. She asks for forgiveness through the Force and gets closer to the altar where her grandmother’s belonging are. She spots a box on the back of the table and inspects it. She can feel the Force inside but she has no idea how to open it.

“A Jedi must have closed that box Rey, use the Force to open it,” Luke instructs her.

Rey reaches out in the Force and feels the mechanism of the box. She figures out at an impressive speed the puzzle and opens her eyes when she hears a soft click. She slides the lid off the box and pears inside. Two translucide crystal rest on an royal blue cushion and she runs he fingers on them. She can sense that the crystals want to protect something. Rey takes them and carefully puts them away in her bag. She closes the box and puts it back in it’s exact spot. Before she leaves the room, Rey kneels in front of her grandmother’s coffin and prays to the Force that she is at peace. When she gets up, Luke is no longer there so she hurries to close back the door and climb back down. She makes her way back to her speeder slowly, looking behind her to make sure no one spots her. It is still night time so she makes sure to be quiet as possible and not drag any attention towards herself as she navigates the streets of Theed city. 

 

The drive back to base takes longer than Rey had anticipated. When she gets back into Anakin’s workshop, his Force Ghost is waiting for her, sitting on an old broken down speeder.

“You found them,” Anakin says with a knowing smile.

“Yes, they are beautiful.”

“May I see them? I knew they were there but I couldn’t open the box.”

“Of course.”

Rey carefully takes the crystals out of her bag and lays them on her workbench. Anakin comes closer and spends a couple of minute staring at them. Rey can feel the nostalgia and guilt pour into the Force so she decides to try something. Luke is able to touch her even if he is a ghost, so maybe she can also touch Anakin. She takes the crystals in her right hand and uses the other one to grab Anakin’s. He looks surprised that she can interact with him physically, but his look of surprise disappears when Rey lays his hand on top of hers. Rey can now see what her grandfather sees. She had seen a couple of those moments when she had her visions, but these one are more axed around the pregnancy. 

 

They stand there, communing with the Force for a while. Then Anakin thanks her for giving him that moment and he fades back into the Force. Rey sits on the floor, exhausted by her night. She has not slept of a while so she looks at her chrono to see how long she has left before Poe and Leia come be back. She panics when she sees that it’s about two hours after the time they had said they would be back. Rey gets up quickly and puts the crystals safely away. She walks out the door and makes sure it’s locked properly. When she turns around, she is faced by the sight of a sleeping Poe Dameron in a chair, leaning on is right arm, BB-8 in rest mode beside him. She walks up to him and pushes some of his curls out of his face. She pulls her hand away quickly and backs away when he starts to stir, embarrassed by the intimacy of her action. Poe blinks his eyes slowly and then he snaps them open. He stands up and strides towards her and he wraps her in a tight hug, also not thinking twice about his actions. He crushes her against his body, relieved to have her back and safe.


	13. Chapter 13

Rey panics for a moment at Poe’s sudden actions. He steps back from the hug and looks at her worriedly, yet methodically. Rey realizes that he is looking for injuries. She grabs his hands, which are shaking slightly, and he looks up at her.

“Are you okay? Are you hurt?”

“I’m fine Poe, everything is absolutely fine.”

He lets out a deep breath and his look of concern transforms into one of anger.

“Where did you go? Why didn’t you tell anyone that you left?” He almost shouts at Rey after stepping away from her. “You left base without backup, without orders, you put yourself in danger, Rey!”

“I was fine, I didn’t put myself in any unnecessary danger!” Rey shouts back.

“What do you mean unnecessary danger? What could possibly justify putting yourself in any danger!”

“I needed to go find something!”

“You could of asked somebody to help you!”

“I’m not used to having people to ask for help!” Rey screams back at him before she storms out of the basement and up the stairs.

Poe stares back at the stairs, dumbfounded, unsure what to do about Rey’s revelation. Then, he realizes how much of an idiot he is. Of course she isn’t used to having people to help her, she spent all those years alone on Jakku scavenging pieces from old Star Destroyers so she could eat. She can’t have had many friends in that line of work, not that she’d had a choice. She doesn’t really know what having a friend to help you is. He can’t believe he just yelled at her for something this stupid.

“Gods, I’m a kriffing idiot,” he whispers into the emptiness of the room.

 

Rey climbs up the steps two at the time and makes her way to her room, avoiding everybody that looks at her when she passes the Command Center. She hears Leia call her name, but she ignores it. When she gets to her room, she slams the door and sits on her bed. She doesn’t understand why she is so upset at Poe’s reaction. She tries to stop thinking to much about it and lays on her bed. She grabs the blanket on the foot of the bed and rolls herself into a ball under it, her new crystals safely tucked with her.

 

The next couple of days are awkward for everyone. Rey and Poe do their best to avoid each other. They only speak to one another when Poe’s speaks to everyone in the mornings as he gives his orders out. Finn even tries to trick them into eating together without success. Rey spends her time either meditating in Anakin’s workshop or working on the Falcon. Rose will sometimes help her, but most people try to stay out of her way. After about a week of this non-sense, Leia asks Poe to meet her on the balcony behind the house. When Poe gets there, Leia is sitting on a bench, looking out at the lake. He walks over to her and she motions him to sit down and he does. Leia waits for a couple of minutes and then looks at him. He looks tired, more than usually, and she speaks up.

“What did you do Poe?”

“What do you mean?”

“I may be old, but I’m not blind. I know everything went to hell between you and Rey when she came back the other morning and she was almost sprinting to her room. I know you walked into Command about two minutes later, looking depressed and guilty. So I ask again, what did you do Poe?”

“I… I yelled at her Leia. I yelled at her because I’m a kriffing idiot.”

“And why did you yell at her?” Leia inquires.

“Because she left without backup or telling anyone. She could have gotten hurt,” Poe answers quickly. 

“I’ll ask again, why did you yell at her?”

Poe looks back at her with a confused look. Leia stares back at him with a small smile, hoping that he will figure out what she meant. Poe rubs his face with his hands and leans forward, resting his elbows in his knees and sighs.

“I yelled at her because she scared me. I yelled at her because she doesn’t understand how important she is. How much she means to m-” he cuts himself of before he reveals to much - “us. She means a lot to the Resistance.”

“And…” Leia adds. She wants him to admit to himself why he yelled at Rey.

“And… and I care about her,” Poe says in one breath.

“Ah, there it is. The truth, finally comes out.”

“Gods, I care so much about her. She is reckless with herself and it makes me panic. She doesn’t know how amazing she is and I wished she did. I haven’t know her for that long, but she’s so important.”

“Then tell her Poe, before she thinks you hate her. She clearly enjoys your company. Make amends before it’s too late to do so.” She puts a hand on his back and he leans back to hug her.

“Thank you Leia.”

“You’re welcome.”

Poe spends the next few hours he has before sunset to get ready. He manages to convince Rose and Finn to help him make sure that Rey is where he needs her to be. He gathers everything and heads for the Falcon. He climbs on to the roof and lays down the blanket. He sits down and waits for her to arrive. After about ten minutes he hears her boarding the ship.

“Hey, Rose? Finn told me you were looking for me up here.”

She stops halfway up the hatch when she sees Poe. 

“Hi Rey.”

“Hi Poe?” She asks with a questioning voice.

“I’m sorry I tricked you into coming here. I didn’t know if you’d even want to speak to me. I just wanted to tell you how sorry I am. I shouldn’t have yelled at you. I was tired and I took it out on you. I hope you can forgive me,” he tells her with as much sincerity as possible. “Just the thought of losing you made me panic.”

“I shouldn’t have gone without telling anyone Poe. I’m sorry too. I just didn’t think to tell anyone. I told R2, but turns out he’s even more loyal to me that I believed.”

“Does that mean we’re good?”

“Yeah, we’re good,” she answers while she finishes climbing the ladder. 

“You want to come sit with me? We can watch the sunset, if you want?”

“I would love to.”

Rey moves to sit beside him and settles herself down. Poe hands her something to drink and a bowl of fruit. Together, they watch the sunset. Poe feels her lean against him and when he looks down at Rey and watches the peaceful expression on her face. He grabs the other blanket he brought and drapes it over her. Not long after, Rey is peacefully napping, her head on Poe’s shoulder.


	14. Chapter 14

Poe wakes Rey up when the sun had set for about an hour. They walk back inside and when they pass the command room, Poe spots Leia smiling at him. He walks Rey to her room, just like he always does since the first time they went on patrol together, and wishes her goodnight. He then gets back to Command as he is on shift for the night. He quickly looks over all the assignments he had given out today, noting the ones that weren’t completed so he can give them back tomorrow and works on the schedule. A group of about twenty Resistance soldiers that weren’t with them during the events of the past weeks had finally been able to make contact and are now making their way to Naboo. His squadron who was also away on a recruiting mission make contact. Poe relaxes when he gets confirmation from Snap that the whole team is fine and they managed to recruit five new pilots. After the massacre of the New Republic and the news of the First Order destroying most of the Resistance on Crait, they had had difficulty to convince people to join what is now believed to be a dead organization. He sits back and thanks the Force that he had sent them away since they would have probably died when Kylo blew up the hangar.

 

He makes sure that the scanners hadn’t picked up anything during the day and looks to see if his contact had confirmed the package pick-up. He had managed to buy a new A-wing and X-wing through his contact and had assigned two of his pilots to take a civilian transport to the planet were the deal would be completed. They had left three days ago and were due to report soon. Just like he had hoped, there was a message saying that everything went down smoothly. He also had one from his pilots confirming the status of the ships. He now has a small fleet of twelve X-wings, one A-wing and the Falcon. Enough to make a new squadron. He knew it was a risk sending two pilots away, but he had to start building back the fleet or they had no chance to survive. Now, he has to find an astromech for one of X-wing since the new ships already have their own and BB-8, as usual, will be his co-pilot. He could take R2, but he wants him to stay at Rey’s side. He hope Jess hasn’t lost her droid again because he has no idea how to find her a new one. He sits down and starts thinking about his possibilities. He could probably buy one in Theed, but a good astromech costs a lot and the fund of the Resistance aren’t what they used to be. His thoughts are interrupted by Leia, who he had forgotten, was sitting in Command when he got there.

 

“What’s the problem General?”

 

“I need an astromech to help fly one of the X-wings but I don’t want to buy one given our resources.”

 

“Did you see what was inside the room in the basement? I’m guessing it’s a small hangar of some sorts. Maybe there is one in there.”

 

“I could ask Rey for the code,” he muses.

 

“Glad I could help General,” Leia says before turning her attention back at the Holo-pad in her lap.

 

They rest of his shift goes by smoothly and when Connix arrives for the other half of the night shift, Poe goes back to his room to get a couple of hours of sleep.

 

Rey wakes up from her night feeling great. She gets ready for her day and heads down to have breakfast with the others. When she arrives there, Finn and Rose are already eating with some friends and she spots Leia eating with Chewbacca. She decides to go have her breakfast with her aunt. She grabs her food quickly and sits down beside Chewie.

 

“Good morning Leia, good morning Chewie,” she says with a much happier tone than the last couple of days. Chewie roars it back at her.

 

“Good morning Rey, did you have a nice evening?” Leia asks with a knowing smile. Poe had told her how it went last night.

 

“Good, I’m glad I don’t have to avoid Poe anymore.”

 

When she finishes, she turns around he enters the room. It’s like she felt him before he arrived. Poe goes through the today’s schedule, assigning a task to everyone but her, which makes her curious. Even when they were not talking, she would usually get a task to do. He dismisses everyone and moves toward her table. He sits down with his tray of food and looks at her. When he sees the look of confusion on Rey’s face he stops eating. It takes him two seconds to figure out what is wrong.

 

“I didn’t assign you task because I need your help with something.”

 

“Okay, what is it?” She asks enthusiastically.

 

“What’s in the locked room in the basement? We need a new astromech to fly one of the X-wings and I was wondering if there was one there.”

 

“It’s a small workshop. There are a couple of really old astromechs. I could fix one up for you.”

 

“Or we could fix it together and do the upgrades on R2 like we said we would?” He asks with hope that she will say yes.

 

“That’s a great idea! Before we go down there, I need to tell you who’s workshop it was.” She lowers her voice and looks around to make sure nobody is listening to them before she goes on. “It belonged to Anakin Skywalker.”

 

Poe and Leia look surprised at her revelation.

 

“How did you get the code to the room?” Leia questions.

 

“I used the Force,” Rey answers. Leia looks unconvinced, but she lets it slide for now.

 

“I don’t mind. After all Leia is his daughter and she’s pretty great. It’s not because he did some really bad things that all he has ever done or touched is awful.”

 

Rey is relieved to hear him say that. She doesn’t know why she is. Worst case scenario would have been that she would have had to bring the droid upstairs if he didn’t want to work in there.

 

“Great, let’s go there immediately!” She smiles at him and they walk down stairs with BB-8 and R2-D2 at their heels. 

 

She opens the room and turns the lights on. Poe walks in and heads for the workbench at the back of the room. Rey goes to the spot in the room where Anakin worked on droids and chooses and old R2 unit and goes to look for some spare parts. Her task is interrupted when Poe asks her a question.

 

“Rey, what’s this?”

 

He points to the work surface where her old broken lightsaber is and her new project is. She had spent the last week trying to build a new one for herself. She was playing around with the design of it, not having been able to connect to her father or Anakin to ask for guidance. She walks quickly towards him and stands in front of her project, hiding it from Poe.

 

“It’s a project I’ve been working on. Nothing important.”

 

“Is that why you left without telling anyone last week?”

 

“Yes it is.” 

 

She thinks about diverting the conversation so she doesn’t have to explain why her first lightsaber is broken, but she decides to trust him.

 

“I broke my lightsaber when I was fighting Kylo Ren on the Supremacy. I’m trying to build myself another one.”

 

“That doesn’t explain why you left base Rey.”

 

“The Kyber crystal in it broke, so I needed to get a new one.”

 

“You found Kyber on Naboo?”

 

“Well, I knew where there was Kyber so… I went to get it.”

 

“How did you know and where did you find it?”

 

Rey hesitates for a moment. Is she actually going to tell him she broke into the Royal crypts to steal some belongings from Padmé Amidala’s resting place? She realizes she really hates lying to Poe so she settles for a half truth.

 

“I felt them in the Force so I followed their signature. They lead me to the Royal Crypts. A may or may not have broken into Padmé Amidala’s tomb to take them.”

 

“Did you just say that you broke into the Royal crypts while I was meeting with the queen, who kindly let’s us stay on her planet. And did you say them?” He lets out quickly.

 

“Yes and yes. I got two crystals that’s why I’m working on a new design.” She expects him to be mad at her again, but he doesn’t. He smiles instead.

 

“Gods, you are amazing. Next time, ask for help. You could have been caught and a least we would have known where you had gone to, okay?”

 

“Absolutely, and does that mean you are granting me the permission to sneak into the Royal crypts again, General?” She teases him. He laughs at her statement before answering.

 

“Let’s stick to no royal belongings at least.”

 

“Do you want to see it?”

 

“If you want to show me, of course.”

 

Rey moves out of the way to let him see the work table.

 

“I’m trying to design one different from the one that belonged to Luke. As I told you I had two crystals so I’m trying to make one that accommodates them both.”

 

“You’re trying to make a double-edged lightsaber? You certainly chose the right planet to do that.”

 

“Yes and what do you mean I chose the right planet?”

 

“Darth Maul, a Sith who died here, wielded one. He was taken down by Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi after he killed Kenobi’s mentor.”

 

“I don’t really know what to do for now so I simply meditate and hope I figure this out quickly.”

 

“I’m sure you’ll manage to figure it out,” Poe tells her with a smile.

 

“Thank you. Let’s get to work?”

 

He nods and they start to work on the new droid. They settle into a nice work pace and they are finished by such time. Yet, they decide to stay there and keep talking while they fix up some old speeders and other droids. They even finish the upgrades on R2 before they leave. Poe goes to bed feeling accomplished and in need of a good night of rest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I decided to add Poe's squadron since I love them so much in the comics and they are pretty much the people that he trusts the most. They were on a mission during the events of TLJ so that's why they didn't die when the hangar was blown up. Also, there might be a longer period of time between updates since school is starting soon for me. Thank you for reading!


	15. Chapter 15

The next morning, the pilots that were sent to get the new ships and the other Resistance fighter all arrive. They are welcomed by Poe and Rose, the latter wanting to inspect the new ship while Poe gives the new-comers their assignments. Poe waits in the field for his squadron, having got a message saying that they are close to base. He sees the familiar X-wings of his pilots and watches them land. He walks toward them and smiles when he sees that none of them are hurt.

 

“Commander Dameron it’s been a while,” Snap laughs.

 

“It’s good to see all of you. You have no idea how much it means to me that you are all safe,” Poe breaths out.

 

“Wait, what’s that?” Jess exclaims, pointing to his jacket where his badge indicates that he’s a general.

 

“You missed a lot. I’m the general now,” he answers and rubs the back of his neck.

 

“Is General Organa dead?” Karé panics.

 

“No, she gave me the command just before we landed on Naboo. She’s still with us,” he tells them quickly, not wanting them to panic.

 

“So Commander Wexley, let me show you where your squadron will be staying. Follow me.” Poe turns around and walks toward the building.

 

“Wait what!” Snap yells.

 

“Black squadron needs a commander and you are my second in command. Congratulation!” He calls over his shoulder.

 

His pilots follow him and he can hear Karé congratulate her husband. He smiles, glad to have his friends back. 

 

While all this is happening, Rey is meditating in her work room. Poe had given her the day off so she could work on her project. She really hopes she will be able to speak to Luke or Anakin today. She is getting impatient at the lack of progress she is making with her new lightsaber. She’s been practicing with a blaster with Finn during their time off and she spars with Poe from time to time, but if she has to fight Kylo, she needs to have a lightsaber. She opens her eyes and, just like she had anticipated, her father is sitting on the floor in front of her. 

 

“Good morning, Rey.”

 

“I’m glad you’re here, I have questions” Rey skips the formalities as she is extremely excited to finally have some help. She stands up and makes her way to her work station.

 

“No good morning back? Somebody is eager to have her own lightsaber.” He stands up and joins her. “What is the problem?” He asks, even if he knows, having built lightsabers for himself and teaching it to the younglings when he had his temple.

 

“I can’t seem to figure out how to make it function properly. I based my design on yours, but mine won’t work,” Rey answers him.

 

“How did you assemble it in the first place?” He is trying to guide her in the right direction.

 

“Well, I used the tools I would normally use to repair or build something.”

 

“What other tools do you have that you didn’t try?”

 

Rey looks at him for a moment, confused. She knows he doesn’t mean an actual tool, like a wrench, but she doesn’t know where he is heading with is questions. She cocks her head, hoping her questioning look will make him tell her, but he simply mirrors her action. She suddenly gets it. She is a Jedi. Her most important tool is her connection to the Force.

 

“I have to use the Force, but how?” 

 

“You meditate with the lightsaber pieces and you move them around, building it in your mind the way you want it. Normally I would tell you that you need to meditate on the crystal before, but they seem to be already connected to you.” Luke looks at the crystals on the table.

 

“Okay I’ll try that. Thank you for the advice.”

 

They bid each other goodbye and Luke disappears back into the Force. Rey gathers all of the pieces of her lightsabers and puts them in her bag. Working downstairs in the room is nice, but Rey has the feeling that if she goes to meditate outside, her chances of succeeding are better. The only problem is that she has to find a spot where nobody will disturb her. She decides that the spot on the Falcon, where she had spent the evening with Poe, is ideal. When you are on the ground, you can’t see her if she is sitting in the middle of it. When she walks up the stairs, R2 at her heels, she is greeted at the top by BB-8. Seeing his droid makes her remember to alert Poe that she will be outside meditating. She kindly asks BB to deliver her message and the droid accepts happily, always glad to help his friend and Master Poe. She makes a quick detour to the kitchen where she grabs water and a snack for herself. She then makes her way to the Falcon and walks inside. She grabs a blanket and climbs the ladder that leads to the roof. She sits down and empties the content of her bag in front of her before she closes her eyes. She puts the Kyber crystals in her lap and starts focusing on the design that she wants to build. Slowly, she slips into a deeper meditative state.

 

Back in the Command Room, Poe is speaking with some people about the best strategies to build their numbers back up when the conversation is interrupted by BB-8 telling Poe, in binary of course, that he has an urgent message. Poe walks out of the room after telling the others that he won’t take long. He had, he admits, told BB-8 to put any messages Rey gives him into the “urgent category”. He calms down when his droid tells him the message. He thanks him with a pat on the astro-mech’s dome and walks back into his meeting. He catches a glimpse of Rey walking to the Falcon from the window in the Command Room and then, he focuses on his meeting. 

 

The rest of the day goes smoothly for everyone. Rose manages to do all the modifications she wanted on the new ships and Finn had a good day of training. When Poe had given out new roles to everybody he had asked Finn to teach a class of combat. Finn had been happy to take up the task since his skills were finally getting put to good use. When Poe arrives at the cafeteria for supper, he is surprised to see that everybody is huddled by the window. It takes him a moment to figure out what they are all looking at. They’re all staring at Rey. She must be sitting on top of the Falcon and the cafeteria is on the second level of the house, giving it the perfect view point. Seeing them all spy on Rey pisses him off. He’s relieved to see his squadron sitting at a table, unbothered by the antics of the others. He casts them a thankful nod before getting close to the group of people before speaking up.

 

“What are you all doing?”

 

They all turn around, somebody steps up, clearly wanting to say something funny, but stops when he sees the look of anger on Poe’s face.

 

“We’re watching the Jedi meditate, General,” he almost whispers.

 

“Why are you doing that? Since when is it acceptable to spy on a superior officer?” Rey technically doesn’t have a rank, but everybody agrees that she is superior to most of them. A younger boy steps up, not realizing that his general is in fact not happy with them at all.

 

“Have you seen her? She’s sitting there making stuff float around her it’s awesome!”

 

“That’s not a good reason. Get back to your seat and I better not catch you all spying on Rey in a similar fashion or there will be consequences. Understood?”

 

“Yes General,” they all answer in unison.

 

Poe grabs himself some food and tells BB-8 to comm him if people try to spy on Rey again before walking out and making his way to the Falcon. He decides that he will watch over Rey since the sun is setting and he doesn’t want her to spend the night outside alone. He settles himself a couple meters away since there are pieces of the lightsaber floating around her.

 

Rey is growing tired. She has been meditating for a long time and she can feel that the air around her is getting colder. She could stop now and continue tomorrow, but she wants to finish this tonight. She feels the Force shift around her and she calms down. She can do this, she knows. She stops focusing on the pieces of metal around her and, instead, she thinks of her crystals that she is holding in her hands. The design suddenly comes to her mind and she starts visualizing herself building it. 

 

At the same time, Poe stares in wonder as the pieces start to move together and build what can be clearly identified as a lightsaber. He moves over so he can sit in front of Rey, expecting her to come back at any moment. Rey’s eyes crack open and she smiles when she sees Poe in front of her. She doesn’t speak, but he can see in her eyes that she’s happy that he’s here. She takes the lightsaber that is now in her lap and opens the casing. Poe is allowed a glimpse at her crystals as she slips them into their chambers. She finishes up everything on instinct while Poe watches in utter fascination. He knows that she’s a skilled mechanic, having watched her work on the Falcon, but seeing her work on something that needs so much precision and skills amazes him.

 

“I’m done. I did it,” she whispers, her throat dry. Poe notices immediatly and quickly grabs the bottle of water beside him and hands it to her. She takes a big gulp and sets it down. She looks him in the eyes, a silent thank you passes between them.

 

“You want to come down and watch me use it for the first time?”

 

“If you want me to, it would be an honour,” he answers, happy that she wants him to be there for such an important moment.

 

“Of course, I want you to,” she tells him with a kind smile.

 

They climb back into the Falcon and Poe makes the suggestion that they stand behind the ship, out of sight from base, to which she agrees.Poe stands away from her, guessing that she will need space to move around. Rey grabs the lightsaber in the middle of the hilt and activates her lightsaber. Two steady beams of golden yellow stream out, casting a soft light in the night. Rey twirls it around, her eyes closed. The more she moves, the more she has memories of training with her father and her mother. She has flashes of her mother’s more aggressive stances and her father’s more defensive position, the two of them moving in perfect harmony. She sees herself as a young girl trying to copy her father with a wooden stick and her mother training her.She moves through a couple forms that she remembers well while Poe looks at her passionately.

 

While Poe watches her he realizes something. He knows why he got angry earlier when everybody was spying on Rey, or why he ran into the forest to find her. He knows why he panicked so much when he came back the other night and she was missing again. He loves her. He has grown to love her so much in the past weeks. To him, her presence lights up a room and her smile, his days. So when the lightsaber turns off, he walks up to her slowly and stops in arms distance of her. When she opens her eyes, it’s like she had felt that he would be there, knowing what he was about to do, so she nods, inviting him to move closer. He gently cups the side of her face and leans in slowly. He kisses her softly, the hand not on her cheek wraps around her waist and brings her closer to him. Rey puts her arms around his neck and tangles her hands in the curls at the base of his neck. When they both pull back slightly, they rest their foreheads together and Poe kisses her temple, murmuring in her ear how amazing she is. 

 

They stand there, holding each other, at peace.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> They finally kissed! By the way I swear there will be a plot to this story. I was rereading everything and noticed that for now not much is happening so, just for your information things start to happen towards chapter 20.


	16. Chapter 16

They walk back inside after a while and make their way to their respective rooms, their hands are brushing together. Poe makes sure that no one is in the hallway before kissing Rey on the forehead and wishing her goodnight. When she sits down on her bed, she sighs happily and softly touches her lips. 

 

Suddenly, she is startled by her father, who is sitting in the chair in the corner of the room. She stands up quickly as if she had done something she shouldn’t have. Luke’s happy expression transform into one of concerned curiosity.

 

“What’s wrong?” 

 

“Nothing, everything is fine!” Rey answers back quickly.

 

“What did you do?”

 

Rey decides to get herself out of what could be a very awkward conversation by turning and grabbing her new lightsaber from her bed.

 

“Look, I managed to finish my lightsaber!”

 

Luke decides to go along with Rey’s diversion for the moment since he is excited to see his daughter’s work. So, he motions her with a wave of his hand to show him. She steps further away from her bed and turns it on. 

 

“It’s yellow? I have never seen one in person.” He says with an impressed tone. Most of his students had either the classic blue or green lightsaber.

 

“It’s beautiful isn’t it? I based the design of it on my staff. That’s why I was trying to make it double-edged,” Rey adds proudly.

 

“It is beautiful, but also practical. You used to always ask me to build you a double-edged one when you were little. I made you a classic practice saber, which you were amazing with, but you preferred sparring with a staff.”

 

Rey turns her lightsaber off and puts it back on her bed. 

 

“I’m going to go to bed now, so goodnight dad.”

 

“Are we just going to avoid speaking about why you panicked when you saw me?”

 

Rey looks down at her feet and Luke panics for a second, thinking that she had actually done something wrong.

 

“Is everything alright Rey? Did something happen?” 

 

“No -yes- no? Maybe?” Rey mumbles out quickly, fidgeting with the hem of her tunic.

 

“Do you want to talk about it?” He asks, wanting to help her in any way he can.

 

Rey thinks about it for couple of seconds. On one hand, she knows he wouldn’t be mad at her for getting into a relationship, but she doesn’t really want to speak about it with her father. 

 

“I don’t think so. For now at least. Nothing is wrong you don’t need to worry about me.” 

 

Luke is not completely satisfied with her answer, but he lets it slide and offers her some advice.

 

“You could always talk to Leia about it. If you want to, of course.”

 

“I might do that. Thank you.”

 

“Goodnight Rey, sleep well.”

 

“Goodnight Luke.”

 

Luke, as usual fades back into the Force and Rey gets ready for bed, musing about seeing Poe tomorrow morning.

 

Back in his room, Poe starts to freak out a little. It has just dawned on him what he just did. He kissed Rey an she had kissed him back. They kissed. This is happening. He goes to his fresher and grabs a glass of water. He jumps when he hears BB-8, behind him, beeping at him that he forgot to come and get him and that he was worried for his master. 

 

“I’m sorry buddy. I forgot that I asked you to look out for Rey. Come on, let’s get you to your charging station.”

 

BB forgives him and goes into charging mode in the corner of the room. He gets himself into bed quickly, replaying the events of the last hours in his head.

 

Rey wakes up early and makes her way down to the Command Room to talk to Leia. When she gets there, she is glad to see that, since it’s really early, Leia is sitting alone.

 

“Good morning Rey, why are you up so early today?” Leia asks her.

 

“Good morning, do you have some free time? I need to tell you something.”

 

“Of course Rey, sit down. I always have time for you.”

 

Rey sits down in front of Leia and takes a deep breath.

 

“PoeandIkissed,” she mumbles quickly.

 

After a long career high ranking positions, military or not, Leia had honed the skill of understanding nervous mumbling. 

 

“Did you, now?” Leia smiles at her. “How was it?” She can’t stop herself from asking. Rey shifts around on her chair for a moment and then settles down before answering.

 

“I had just finished building my new lightsaber and he was watching me while I was trying it out. When I stopped, he was so close to me and we kissed. It was really nice. I like him a lot. He’s special, I can always feel it when he’s near to me.”

 

“As long as you are comfortable in the relationship I am happy for you. Did you speak to Luke about it?” Leia can guess that her brother probably suggested that Rey speak to her if she didn’t want to speak to him about it.

 

“He sort of knows something happened, but I didn’t tell him. You’re the only one I’ve told and I would like to keep it that way for now.” 

 

Leia nods understanding what it is like to be in a relationship when everybody looks up at you. The gossiping and the bets that were put on her and Han getting together had annoyed her back then. 

 

“You built yourself a new lightsaber? That’s great!”

 

“Yeah, that’s what I’ve been working on for the last week. I can show it to you later. Thank you for listening to me.”

 

“Of course Rey, I’m glad you feel comfortable enough that you confided in me. We should head to mess, it’s almost time for the morning announcement.”

 

Both of them go to the cafeteria and they grab breakfast. They sit at their usual spot, beside Chewie, and the back of the room. Rey can’t help but notice that she’s being stared at. She can see them looking at her, even if it’s just quick glances. When she starts getting really uncomfortable, she is saved as Poe enters the room. Everybody looks directly into their plates, clearly not wanting to be caught staring at her. She makes the mental note to ask him why later.

 

“Good morning everyone,” Poe says, shifting the attention completely on himself. He looks around the room, discreetly smiling when his eyes land on Rey. 

 

“Morning General,” a chorus of voices answer back.

 

He goes through the assignments of the night shift, making sure everything has been done to his standards and moves on to today’s assignments. The last one concerns her.

 

“I will be leaving base with Rey today. The Queen has asked to meet her so, as usual, Leia and Connix will be in charge today in my absence. Is everything clear?”

 

“Yes General.” 

 

Poe gets his food and sits besides Rey, a bit closer than usual, and he starts to eat silently. When he looks up, Leia is starring at him with a knowing look. He guesses that Rey has told her what happened, not that he minds. He almost starts speaking, but he is interrupted by Leia.

 

“So, a meeting with the Queen?” She inquires. “When did she ask?”

 

“I got a message from her this morning asking to meet with Rey, so I accepted,” he informs her. The message simply stated that the queen would love to meet the resident Jedi.

 

“Great, when do we leave?” Rey cuts into the conversation enthusiastically. Spending the day with Poe makes her happy.

 

“The meeting is not for a while, but I was thinking we could walk around the markets and buy some supplies,” he tells her. Leia looks at him with a “ I know what you are doing” look, but he brushes it off, knowing that Leia is not mad at him. “We just have to grab clothes that blend in and we can leave.”

 

“I am going to grab a cloak to hide my lightsaber and we can leave.” She eats the last bite of her bread and gets up. She turns back asking him a last question. “Are we bringing BB-8 and R2 with us?”

 

“I was thinking we could just bring BB and leave R2 with Chewie so that they can work on the Falcon, but we can bring him if you want.”

 

“No, it’s fine. Meet you in 15 minutes downstairs?”

 

“Sure, see you then.”

 

Poe watches her leave the room and turns back to Leia.

 

“So, you had a nice evening,” she teases him.

 

He can feel himself blushing, which has not happened to him since he was a teenager. At least not when it concerns a girl.

 

“Yeah it was nice,” he tries to answers like it was nothing, a bit unsure of Leia’s opinion.

 

“I’m not mad at you Poe, but you need to be careful with her. She cares for you and, as you know, she’s had a difficult life. I’m glad to see you with someone like her, but you need to commit. I’ve known you for long enough.”

 

He winces at that. In his younger years, he had slept around, but since joining the Resistance that had calmed down a lot. He has a question that has plagued him since last night and he hopes Leia knows the answer. 

 

“How old is she? I want to ask her, but I feel like it would insult her.”

 

“She is about twenty years old from what I can guess,” she tells him. 

 

He starts to panic a bit, feeling like he is an old man who just took advantage of Rey. Leia snaps him out of his panic.

 

“I was nineteen when I met Han, Poe. You are not going to get judged by me for the age difference. As long as you are both happy, you shouldn’t mind it. That would insult her. Now go, you’re going to be late General.” She smiles at him.

 

“Thank you Leia. See you later. Comm me if anything happens.” He smiles back at her and gets up.

 

He quickly goes back to his room to grab his blaster and a jacket that doesn’t have the Resistance insignia on it. When he arrives in the basement, Rey is crouched down and speaking to R2 and BB-8. Gods does he find her beautiful. She has a grey cloak on that covers her new lightsaber. She straightens up and punches the code into the padlock when she sees him. 

 

“We can take this one,” She says, pointing to the speeder she used the other time. “You can drive, I don’t exactly know where we are going.”

 

“Yeah, I’ll drive.” 

 

He stands there awkwardly not sure what to do. Now that they are alone, he really wants to kiss her again, but he doesn’t want to be overwhelming.

 

Seeing Poe stand there, clearly lost in his head, Rey walks up to him and takes his hands in her own. Since she’s only a couple of inches shorter than him, she doesn’t have to make a big effort to tentatively lean up and slowly, she presses her lips to his. It takes him a couple of seconds to process what is going on before he wraps one of his arms around her waist, pulling her closer to him like he did last night. He really loves holding her close to him like that. He doesn’t think he could ever not love having her close, kissing her. His other hand rests on her lower back, while hers are now on his chest. He pulls back, needing some air and smiles at her.

 

“You look like you needed some help,” she whispers. He chuckles and presses a quick kiss to her lips.

 

“We should get going if we want to have some free time in the city,” he whispers back at her. She agrees and they get into the speeder.

 

The ride to the markets takes a while and they spend it in a comfortable silence, Rey holding Poe’s hand that isn’t occupied at the controls. Poe will sometime glance at her not believing that he is lucky enough to have this small moment of peace. For the past couple of years, he has convinced himself that he is okay dying alone for the cause. It would be worth it. But now, he wants to spend as much time with her as possible. He wants to bring her to Yavin 4 to meet his dad, to show her the galaxy in all it’s wonder. And when she catches him looking at her, she smiles at him, her eyes reflecting her wish to spend that time with him.


	17. Chapter 17

When they get close to the markets, they park the speeder deciding to walk the rest of the way. It’s a nice day in Theed and the markets are crowded. Rey has her cloak on hiding her lightsaber, that is now permanently clipped to her belt. She is trying to enjoy herself, but she is getting quickly overwhelmed by the amount of people around her. Poe senses her discomfort and takes her hand in his, running his thumb on her knuckles. She looks at him and squeezes his hand, a silent thank you. Poe buys some fruit for them to eat while they walk around the stalls. They spend about an hour there before making their way to the rendez-vous point.

 

When they get there, the captain is waiting for them in civilian clothes. They exchange a quick greeting before he walks them to the same room Poe had his first meeting with the queen. The captain asks for Poe’s blaster, which he hands reluctantly. When he asks Rey if she has a weapon on her, she actually goes to hand him her lightsaber, not wanting to insult the Nabooian guard. Poe stops her before she can move her cloak and grab it.

 

“You don’t have the right to ask a Jedi for her weapon. You may not have met one before, but I’m sure you can remember basic history.”

 

“Every guess is unarmed in the presence of the Queen, I’m sure you can remember basic diplomacy,” the captain answers back.

 

“Of course I do. But there are rules that apply in the presence of a Jedi captain.” Poe is not letting him win this argument. This time Rey steps forward.

 

“I do not mean to insult you in anyway, but my weapon will stay on me.” 

 

She moves her cloak, showing the hilt of her lightsaber to him. Rey guessed that he had assumed that she had a blaster on her. When he sees it his eyes grow wide for a second as he understands that he is dealing with an actual Jedi.

 

“I’m sorry for insulting you Master Jedi,” he apologies, bowing his head, actually remembering diplomacy. Rey thinks of correcting him for a second, but she doesn’t really know herself if she is a Master or not. 

 

“You did not insult me Captain, no harm was done.” Rey steps back and looks at Poe, which calms him down.

 

The Queen choses the right moment to enter the room. Poe bows politely, Rey copying him.

 

“Hello Master Jedi, it is honour to meet you. I am Queen Soruna.” 

 

“I am Rey.” Her answer is short since she can’t use her last name for now.

 

“General Dameron, I hope the fighters we gave you are being put to good use?” The Queen asks with a kind smile.

 

“Thank you very much again for your generosity. They are greatly appreciated by my pilots.”

 

“It has been a while since we had a Jedi on Naboo. I hope my captain did not ask you hand over your lightsaber Master Rey.”

 

Rey senses the captain’s panic and smiles at him, answering before neither Poe or him can.

 

“We had no problem getting to the meeting.”

 

They all sit down and they speak about a lot of things. Rey is mostly silent when Poe and the Queen talk about things that have to do with military procedures, but she joins the conversation when they get to piloting. They are speaking about what ship they prefer, Poe being X-wings and the queen Nabooian fighters, when Rey cuts in.

 

“I haven’t piloted many kinds of ships, but I don’t think anything could top the Falcon.”

 

“You fly the Millenium Falcon? Han Solo’s Falcon?” The Queen asks, clearly impressed.

 

“Yes, he sort of gave it to me. Chewbacca copilots of course.” Rey says, oblivious to the fact that the Falcon is probably one of the most famous ship in the galaxy.

 

“That is impressive Master Rey.”

 

“Thank you.”

 

The Queen goes on to ask her about the state of the Force, concentrating mainly on Luke. A lot of system leaders are communicating and speaking about what happened on Crait. The return of the Jedi began a series of secret talks about the hope of beating the First Order. Poe is glad to hear that other planets are now thinking about supporting the Resistance again. The spark had indeed lit a fire. Rey answers her the best she can without giving to much away about Force ghosts and uses this opportunity to give hope to the Queen.

 

The meeting ends and they say goodbye before leaving. Poe proposes that they eat lunch in the market before going back to base and Rey agrees. They sit down at a small restaurant and order some food. 

 

“I was wondering if something happened yesterday. When you walked into mess this morning everybody stared at their plates. I know they were looking at me, even if they were trying to be subtle.” Rey remembers that she wanted to ask him about that earlier.

 

“I caught them spying on you when you were meditating on the Falcon. Let’s just say that I may be a little protective of you.”

 

“A little? If I had not stepped in front of you earlier, I don’t think I would have met the Queen,” she had meant to tease him, but Poe thinks she is insulted by his actions.

 

“I know you’re more than able to take care of yourself. I am just a protective person and I didn’t mean to insult you,” He says, an apologetic look on his face. Rey puts her hand on his and smiles.

 

“You don’t need to apologize, I like it. I’m not used to having someone that wants to defend me.”

 

“I will be there for you as long as you want me to be Rey. I swear to you.”

 

“And I will do the same to you,” she answers before Poe takes their intertwined hands on the table and kisses the back of hers. 

 

“I have question Poe.”

 

“Go ahead.”

 

“I think we’re on the same page for this, but I think we should keep our relationship between us for now. I don’t want you to think that I’m ashamed because of the whole “I’m a Jedi” thing. It’s just that I like that this is just something for us to enjoy. People are already obsessed with me and I do not want to add to that gossip. I don’t want this to be a secret for ever. Just for now.”

 

“I’m entirely on the same page as you. Of course Leia knows which I don’t mind and neither do you. I’m fine with all of it. I wouldn’t mind telling Rose and Finn if you feel okay with it,”

 

“That’s a good idea! I think Chewie already knows. That wookie notices everything,”

 

They finish their lunch and walk the way back to where they had left the speeder. Before Poe can get into the speeder, Rey walks towards him and kisses him. His hands find their new favourite spots, one around her hips and the other on her lower back and he deepens the kiss, enjoying the way she reacts to it. The kiss gets more heated when Rey presses him against the speeder and her hands grasp the collar of his jacket, bringing him even closer to her. When Poe pulls away, needing to breathe, he moves the hand that is on her back to cup the side of Rey’s face and gently strokes her cheekbone with his thumb. 

 

“As much as I would love staying here and keep kissing you, we should get going.” He says before he kisses her, this time on the bridge of her nose. She agrees and then he waits for her step away from him, not wanting to be the one to make the first move. 

 

When they get back to the basement hangar, they make plans to take a walk around the compound after dinner. Rey makes sure to get one more kiss before they have to go back to their duties.


	18. Chapter 18

Poe is sitting in command with his squadron talking about the new pilots and how the new squadrons are going. The four pilots spend their time training the new pilots or simply helping around the base. Jess has been spending time with Rose talking about mods on ships. Suralinda is working on finding a way to make sure that the rest of the galaxy know that Snoke is dead and that there is a Jedi fighting for them. Poe is so glad to have them back with him. These people have been a constant presence in his life for years now and he knows he can trust them with anything. 

 

“So Poe, if there is a battle where are you going to be? Like, Generals are usually in the main cruiser or stay on base. With the numbers we have, we kind of need you up there with us,” Karé says, taking a sip of her caff.

 

“I haven’t figured that out yet. I would much rather be in the cockpit with all of you, but I’m the general now I have to make sure everything is going on smoothly. Commanding pilots while flying is simple to me. I have you guys that are always spot on. For now I know I can do everything from my cockpit because we don’t have a ground force that can be deployed, but when we have more people and ground troops I’m going to have to decide what to do about it. Also, you guys are going to get promotions for sure. If you all become part of command and let’s be honest, we are pretty much the best pilots, winning battles is going to become a bit harder,” Poe tells them honestly. “I was thinking of trying to recruit former New Republic officers that were not based in the Hosian system. Most of them are either in hiding or were assassinated. Connix is still trying to make contact with some of our former allies, but we’ve had no answers for now.”

 

“What about the Jedi?” Suralinda inquires. “She’s a great pilot and I know you’ve put a X-wing aside just for her even if she flies the Falcon.”

 

“Yeah the X-wing is for her. If she has to face Kylo Ren in the air, I would rather have her in a fighter that in a freighter even if it’s the Falcon. I need her as safe as possible. The less danger she’s in the better it is. Kriff, I don’t even want to think about her fighting Ren. I can’t handle that.”

 

His friends look at him with a surprised look. Since they’ve met Poe, he has never shown any actual open affection towards someone. They know he has been in at least one serious relationship, but since that ended, he just slept around. Him openly telling them he needs to keep a girl safe and not because he’s been ordered to do it is something new.

 

“What? Did I say something wrong?”

 

“Poe are you and Rey a thing?” Karé exclaims. 

 

“Um… yes…? Gods, I hope she’s not mad at me. We agreed not to tell anyone.” He should have known that if he was going to let it slip, it would be when he was with them. The trust and ease that he has when he’s with his squadron is something he holds dear to his heart. “Yeah, you could say we’re together.” 

 

“Isn’t she supposed to stay celibate? Snap asks. 

 

“We haven’t talked about that. I don’t think she really cares about that rule. At least I hope she doesn’t I’m warming up to the idea of having her in my life quite quickly.” If he’s going to be honest, might as well be entirely honest. “I’m in love with her.”

 

“Wow Poe, I never imagined I would hear you say that,” Suralinda responds.

 

“Me either, I always imagined I’d be dead before that happened. I’m probably going to die before this war ends.”

 

“Poe! Don’t say that!” Karé grabs his hand.

 

“What, you really think I’m going to survive this? I have a target painted on my back since Terex. If I was the First Order I would try to kill me. If it ever gets out that I’m with Rey, something tells me Ren is going to try to do it personally.”

 

“Kriff Poe, that’s some dark thinking.” Snap shake his head and runs a hand through his beard. “You’re going to have to talk about that with her.”

 

“I know, but not now. We have to much to deal with at the moment.” 

 

“Never imagined you would end up dating a Jedi,” Jess mumbles as she takes a sip of her caff. 

 

“Yeah speaking of dating a Jedi,” Poe looks down at his chrono. “I’m meeting up with her in about five minutes and I’m not making her wait for me. I will have my comms on if something happens. If someone asks where I am, tell them I’m taking some me time.” Poe gets up and leaves the room.

 

“Gods, we leave him for a couple of weeks and we come back to him being a general and dating a Jedi.” Snap laughs when Poe is out of the room, making his wife and friends chuckle.

 

Rey is sitting on the bench overlooking the lake when she feels him arriving. She looks over her shoulder to smile at him. He smiles back and walks faster towards her.

 

“Hi Sunshine.” He sits down beside her.

 

“Hi Poe,” she knows he’s nervous about something so she simply asks him. “Why are you nervous?”

 

He looks at her, surprised, and then smiles. “I slipped up and accidentally told my squadron about you and me. I just get so comfortable around them.”

 

“I don’t mind Poe, if you trust them that much, I trust them. Are they the one in Command right now?” She looks up at the window of the room. He looks in the same direction as her.

 

“Yes why?” 

 

He turns is head to look back at her, and when he’s about midway, Rey’s hand is on his cheek, bringing him in for a kiss. He freezes for a moment and, when his brain decides to collaborate, he kisses her back grabbing her by the waist and pulling her closer to him. She smiles against his lip and moves the hand that is on his cheek to his hair. He pulls back and presses a trail of quick kisses from the tip of her nose to her forehead.

 

“Let’s go for that walk we talked about earlier,” he whispers on her forehead. 

 

“That’s a good idea,” she whispers back and brushes her nose against his jaw before standing up. 

 

They walk together, the back of their hands touching until they are far enough in the fields and out of sight. Poe takes her hand and kisses the back of it. He has to let go of it when Rey starts running brushing her hand on the long grass. Poe is watching her, walking with his hands in his pockets, when she suddenly disappears in the tall bushes. Poe sprints in her direction hoping she didn’t twist her ankle or didn’t notice a change in the terrain. He slows down when he hears her laughter and follows the noise. He smiles when he sees her on the ground, looking up at him. He sits down and puts her head in his lap.

 

“You made me panic for a second,” Poe laughs.

 

“Sorry, it’s just that the grass looked so soft.”

 

“Can I braid your hair?” He blurts out.

 

“You wanna braid it?” She looks unsure.

 

“Yeah, you have pretty hair. I used to do my mom’s hair. She showed me how to do the braids she liked to do when she wore her flight helmet,” he tells her.

 

Rey sits up and takes down her three buns. She relaxes as soon as she feels Poe’s fingers against her scalp. He untangles her hair and starts braiding it. It takes a while until he’s satisfied with it as it’s been years since he’s done this. He ties it and drapes the braid over her shoulder so he can kiss the back of her neck. She leans into his touch and scoots towards him so her back is touching his’s chest. He puts his head on her other shoulder. 

 

“This is really nice,” Rey whispers contentedly.

 

“Yes it is.”

 

They stay like that for a while, looking up at the native birds in the sky. Their bird watching gets interrupted when Poe’s comms beeps. It’s Leia asking when they are coming back so she can warn the night patrol that they are there. She tells them where Chewie is posted so they don’t get spotted.

 

“We should head back,” Poe tells her after muting the comm.

 

“Probably, it’s getting dark quickly.”

 

Poe tells Leia that they are coming back right now. They hold hands until they see the base. They say good night to the wookie and walk inside. They get to the hallway where their rooms are, stopping in front of Rey’s rooms. Poe can feel her hesitating to enter her room.

 

“What’s wrong?” He takes her hand, not even caring that someone could walk into the hallway.

 

“I want to keep speaking with you, but something tells me that if I ask you to come into my room you’re going to say no.”

 

“I… I don’t know what to say to that.” He runs his thumb across her knuckles. He knows she’s not suggesting anything, but he hasn’t been in someone’s room just to talk since forever. He also wants to stay with her longer. “I will make sure that BB is in his charging station and then I’ll come. Okay?”

 

“Okay, I’ll be waiting,” she smiles, happy that he agreed to her proposition.

 

Poe hurries in his room, telling BB that he doesn’t know if he’ll come back before morning. He changes into his sleeping clothing before sneaking back to Rey’s room. He softly knocks on her door and enters. She’s in the fresher, looking at herself in the mirror. Her fingers are softly touching her hair. Poe walks so he’s behind her and hugs her.

 

“Do you like it?”

 

“It’s beautiful, Poe. I love it,”

 

“I’ll show you how to do it.”

 

“Or you could keep on doing it for me.”

 

“I could do that,” he smiles.

 

Poe lets her have some privacy so she can get changed. He sits in the chair in the corner of the room. When Rey comes back, she sits on her bed and pats the spot beside her. Poe hesitates to move from his spot. He changes his mind when he realizes that Rey really wants him to. He stands up and takes a deep breath. Rey holds her hand out prompting him to move towards her. He takes her hand and she pulls him onto the bed. She lays down on her side and Poe mirrors her position. They are face to face, hands clasped together in-between them. 

 

“Can you tell me about Yavin again?” Rey whispers into the space between them. 

 

Poe nods and smiles. He tells her about his dad’s koyo melon orchards, the Massassi Valley and the beautiful lake close to his dad’s compound. He describes the jungle and it’s plants. Her eyes are starting to close and tension eases out of her. He stops talking when he thinks she’s asleep. He should probably go back to his bed, but Rey is still holding his hand. He looks at her, getting sleepy himself. His eyes are closed when he hears her voice.

 

“Poe?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“Will you bring me to Yavin 4 one day?”

 

“I would love to bring you home with me.”

 

“Do you think it could be my home too?”

 

“Would you like it to be your home Sunshine?”

 

“I think I would love it being my home.”

 

“Then I’ll bring you with me,”

 

“We’ll stay together?”

 

“I would like that very much.”

 

“Then that’s what we’ll do”

 

Poe smiles and, for some reason, he knows that Rey is also smiling.


	19. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry for the long wait between the updates. I got really sick (Bronchitis sucks) and couldn't really concentrate on anything for too long. I even tried to proof read myself the other day, but I just ended coughing my lungs out at my desk. The next update shouldn't take as long as I'm felling much better.

Rey opens her eyes when she feels her father coming in the Force. She suddenly remembers that Poe was in the same bed as her when she fell asleep, the weight of his arm around her waist confirming that he is still there. Well that’s one way to tell your father you’re in a relationship, she thinks. Her father materializes in the chair in the corner of her room. He goes to speak, but he stops when he spots Poe in the bed beside his daughter. He stares at him with a indiscernible look across his face. Rey decides to face the situation head on. 

 

“Hi dad,” she whispers, not wanting to wake Poe up.

 

“Hello Rey,” he stops speaking for a second, cocking his head with a small smile. “I’m guessing this is what happened the other night.”

 

“You’d be guessing right,” she answers.

 

Poe stirs beside her and starts mumbling. Rey takes his hand that his splayed on her stomach hoping that the contact will bring him back to sleep. He shifts towards her and sighs when he successfully finds the back of her neck with his nose. Rey waits a couple of seconds before looking back at her father. “I guess he’s a light sleeper. Are you okay Dad?”

 

“Yes, I just wanted to come and see if you were alright after last night. I can see that everything is fine. I’m sorry for waking you. Sleep well Rey,” Luke says. Yet, he doesn’t disappear. He looks back at his daughter and the man sharing her bed. “Does he know?” He whispers even if Poe can’t hear him.

 

“No, but I’m going to tell him in the morning. I have this feeling that I can trust him with anything.” Luke nods and fades away. Rey closes her eyes, the feeling of Poe’s breathing against her skin lulling her back to sleep.

 

Poe is the first to wake up next morning. He doesn’t have to open his eyes to know that he’s currently snuggled up to Rey. He softly pulls his hand from Rey’s grip and rest his head on his other hand so he can look down at her. He smiles as he slowly tucks a strand of hair that fell out of the braid behind her ear. He keeps admiring her as she sleeps. He loves the faint freckles that pepper her skin, the faint arch of her brows inviting him to kiss them. So he does. He feels more relaxed than he has ever been in the last years of his life.

 

“Can I return the favour now?” Rey mumbles, her eyes still closed.

 

Poe drops back on his pillow, rolling to his back and chuckle. “How long have you been awake Sunshine?”

 

“Long enough.” She turns around so she facing him. She runs her fingers along his strong jaw, enjoying the prickle of his stubble. “I love your jaw.” She lifts herself up so she’s leaning over him. “ And your nose.” She kisses the bridge of it. “You have kind eyes,” she finishes before kissing his forehead. She lays back down, her head over his heart. Poe kisses the top of her head and rubs her back. Rey looks up at Poe, remembering she has something to tell him.

 

“I need to tell you something important. I should probably have told you sooner, but I was afraid.”

 

“You can tell me anything. I will always listen to you.”

 

“Luke Skywalker is my father,” she says to him bluntly. The hand that was rubbing her back stops moving for a moment. “My mother was a Jedi that lived at his temple.” He’s staring at the ceiling.

 

“I thought you said you didn’t know who your parents were.” Rey is relieved that he doesn’t seem mad or panicked, just confused. 

 

“I learnt who they were when I touched the broken Kyber crystal inside of my old lightsaber. I was having visions and when I came back to myself, Luke was waiting there for me as a Force ghost. I’ve only told Leia. I also sometime talk to Anakin. He’s the one who led me to my new crystals.” Poe hasn’t moved yet which makes Rey start to panic a bit.

 

“I… I hope you know that this doesn’t change how I feel about you. I don’t care where you come from. Thank you for trusting me.” His hand starts moving again and he looks down at her. “Just one question. Force Ghost?”

 

“Luke and Anakin can sort of appear to me. From what I can guess I’m the only one who can see them.”

 

“Okay… okay that’s something else. Are you fine with all of it?”

 

“I’m relieved to have learned who my parents are. The Force ghosts are maybe going to be a problem sometimes,” she mumbles the last phrase remembering how Luke had stared at Poe during last night’s appearance.

 

“Please tell me that Luke Skywalker did not see me making out with you.”

 

“He hasn’t seen us making out, but he saw us last night.”

 

“That’s… weird?” He’s not sure how to describe it. 

 

“Yes it was, trust me,” Rey chuckles and smiles at Poe.

 

“You are going to have to tell me when they are here so I don’t say anything stupid.”

 

“I promise. Are you sure you are okay with this?”

 

“I love you for who you are, not who your family is. You told me the truth and that’s all I care about.”

 

“You love me?” Rey whispers. Poe’s realizes what he just said and panic for about 2 second before answering. “Yeah, I love you. You are everything to me.” Rey feels a tear slide down her cheek and Poe brushes it away with his thumb. “I love you too,” she tells him with a smile. Poe uses the arms that his around her waist to pull her up for a kiss. 

 

It’s still early, but Poe knows he has to get up and go to his room to change before the others are awake. They both agree to meet in mess for breakfast and Poe gets out of bed.

 

He slips out the door and freezes when he comes face to face with Leia. She also looks a bit shocked to see him coming out of Rey’s bedroom.

 

“Poe.”

 

“Leia.”

 

They stare at each other for about five seconds before Leia turns around and walks away. Poe stands still for a couple more, cringing slightly and walks quickly to his quarters. He puts on his clothing for the day and goes to the mess hall. When he enters the room, he stares at his usual table where he’s been eating with Finn, Rose, Connix, Chewie, Leia and Rey. He then looks at the table where Black Squadron is seated. The decision is easy for him, he grabs his and Rey’s breakfast before sitting down in front of Snap. 

 

“Good morning Poe,” Jess tells him.

 

“Mmmmh,” Poe mumbles, still staring at Leia. His whole squadron turn around to see what has his attention.

 

“Please tell me you got caught by Leia while you were with Rey,” Sura pleads, not too loud since she knows that Poe wants to keep this a secret. Poe turns his attention to his friends and clears his throat. “I’m not going to answer that.”

 

“I’ll take that for a yes then,” Jess says quickly since Rey is sitting down beside Poe.

 

“Hello I’m Rey,” she introduces herself since it’s the first time she’s speaking to Poe’s squad. “It’s an honour to meet you. Poe speaks highly of you all.”

 

“It’s nice to meet you too Rey, I’m Karé.” 

 

The rest of the team also introduces themselves. They start speaking about piloting. Poe is glad to see them get along so nicely. Rey nudges him with her knee under the table and points to his chrono, making him remember that he has the morning announcement to make. He downs his caff and stands up quickly. 

 

As soon as he reaches the middle of the room, he has the attention of everybody. He doesn’t have much to say this morning so he simply assigns the patrol teams. He has a command meeting in 15 minutes so he heads there to make sure he has everything ready. 

 

Back in the cafeteria, Rey is still sitting with Black Squadron. She finishes Poe’s ration of bread. She can feel Leia’s gaze on her, but decides to ignore it for now and enjoy her morning conversation with her new friends. She gets up from the table at the same time as them since they are all going to the meeting. Poe is reading something on his datapad and motions to them to sit down with a wave of his hand. Leia, Finn and Connix also come in and sit down.

 

“From what we can gather, The First Order leadership hasn’t announced the death of Snoke to most of their subordinates. Their operations aren’t running as smoothly since they’ve lost the Supremacy and their destroyers. The problem is that most of the galaxy thinks we’re dead. There are whispers about a new Jedi, but no major media outlet has confirmed it,” Poe informs them.

 

“I’ve been thinking about that and I think I’ve got an idea,” Suralinda speaks up. Having been a journalist for a couple of years, she was put in charge of making propaganda for the Resistance when she joined. “With the help of C3PO’s operatives, I found a small mining colony that is being enslaved by the Order. There are not a lot of stormtrooper divisions guarding it, but enough to attract attention. I could go there with Rey and maybe a couple soldiers to free the slaves. I record the whole thing and sell it to a media company. We free some people, confirm the Jedi rumours and make a couple credits at the same time.”

 

Poe has never liked propaganda, but he knows how useful it can be. The problem he has about this plan is sending Rey away. He knows she could kick his ass with no difficulty and that she’s more than able to take care of herself, but he would rather not expose her to any danger. People are waiting for him to respond, but it’s Rey that speaks up.

 

“I’m in. Nobody deserves to be enslaved.” She looks at Poe, knowing that he’s hesitating about the whole thing.

 

“Show me the colony,” he finally asks. Sura puts the information on the holo-table that they are sitting around. Poe looks at it for about two minutes before speaking again. “If a team infiltrates the base and frees the slaves while Rey and her team face the stormtroopers out in the open, the freed slaves could join in. Finn, I want you with Rey and Sura. Karé you will provide air support with two other pilots. Gladly for us, we still have an Intelligence officer that can lead the infiltration. Chewie will be on this mission since he has experience with this kind of operation. I’ll stay on the comms with Connix from here. If anything, and I repeat anything feels wrong, my order is to abandon mission. Am I clear?”

 

“Yes,” a chorus of voice answers.

 

“Good, You will leave next week so the info we have is still new and we’re sure that everything is ready. Sura, keep digging around for info the mine and the village. I’ll send everybody there tasks. Dismissed.” Poe finishes the meeting a bit more abruptly that he had originally planned, but he needs time to process how he feels right now. He stands up and walks out before he can be interrupted, going downstairs to the locked hangar. He knows that Rey is following him so he leans against the wall beside the door, eyes closed. He hears Rey unlocking the door beside him and she takes his hand to pull him inside the room. She leans him against the side of an old speeder and kisses the side of his head.

 

“Thank you for trusting me with this.” She can feel his conflicted emotions in the Force.

 

“I trust you, I’m just afraid. I’m the one sending you way. If something happens to you all it will be my fault,” he whispers. “I don’t want to lose anybody else.”

 

“We’ll be careful. I won’t put myself in unnecessary danger. I’ll come back, Okay?”

 

“Okay… just give me a hug.” He opens her arms to her and she steps into his embrace. She tucks her face into his neck, feeling the quick beating of his heart against her nose.

 

Suddenly Poe’s hand is on his blaster, turning his body sideways to shield her from something.

 

“Put your hands up! Now!” Poe yells aggressively.

 

Rey activates her lightsaber without even looking at who’s standing there, ready to protect Poe. She lowers her weapon when she’s sees that it’s only Anakin standing there. Then something clicks in her mind and she spins back to look at Poe.

 

“Wait, you can see him?” She exclaims.

 

“Of course I can see him!” Poe shouts back, still in his defensive position.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A cliff hanger and the beginning of an actual plot, what? I'm impressed with myself. Force sensitive!Poe is canon in my head so I needed to include that in this fic. Thank you for reading!


	20. Chapter 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 20!

“Poe, that’s Anakin,” she says as she sheaths her lightsaber.

 

“What do you mean that’s Anakin?” Poe responds, still staring down the other man.

 

“That’s Anakin’s Force ghost.” She wraps her hand around his wrist and makes him slowly lower his blaster.

 

“Then why can I see him?” Poe finally looks at Rey, confused.

 

“You didn’t know you are Force sensitive?” Anakin finally speaks, also surprised.

 

“What!” Both Rey and Poe exclaim. “I’m not a Jedi!” Poe continues on.

 

“True, you’re no Jedi, but you are Force sensitive. Can’t you feel him the Force, Rey?”

 

“Yes, of course but-” 

 

“Yes, I know you feel everyone, but his presence is so much more potent. It similar to Leia’s, is it not?”

 

“He’ more…more golden and warm,” Rey hesitates, not sure how to describe it.

 

“I’m really confused right now,” Poe cuts in.

 

“You’ve even been using the Force for a good part of your life. It’s amazing that you’ve never noticed,” Anakin goes on, getting more and more curious. “Do you remember how they sometimes described your piloting back at the Academy?”

 

Poe looks lost in his thoughts and suddenly remembers overhearing a couple of older superior officers speaking about him. He had just beaten the track record by a lot. He knows he wasn’t supposed to hear that conversation and that his superiors were only speaking openly since they were probably assuming that he was still with his friends on the tarmac celebrating the new record. Poe had slipped back inside to go see the record board, gazing at the name bellow his, _Shara Bey_. He probably should have left when he heard the hushed speaking, but his curiosity had gotten the better of him. The trio was out of his sight, but he could hear well.

 

“He’s good, almost too good. When you told us that he was better than his mother, I assumed you were exaggerating. I’ve haven’t seen a pilot this good since-”

 

“The Rebellion.” The others stopped speaking.

 

“Wedge you don’t mean-”

 

“You know what I mean Norra.” 

 

Poe’s interest had peaked when he learnt who was speaking. Wedge Antilles and Norra Wexley, the Rebellion heroes. 

 

“Wes, he’s not serious?” The female voice now identified as Norra replied also identifying Wes Janson, another hero from the Rebel Alliance.

 

“I got the same feeling watching Dameron fly.”

 

“Let’s agree to keep this for ourselves to protect the boy. He doesn’t need to have that kind of attention on him,” Antilles cuts in. 

 

“Sure,” the others chime in, their voices harder to hear as they walked away.

 

Poe probably would have remembered the story before if he hadn’t gotten drunk on a crazy amount of Corellian whiskey in celebration. He has the feeling he’s only remembering this now because the Force wants him to remember.

 

“Gods, they were speaking about Luke,” Poe breaths out.

 

Rey looks back and forth between Poe and Anakin, clearly missing a piece of the puzzle. Poe feels her confusion, now realizing that it’s the Force telling him that, and tells her the story. 

 

“I still don’t completely understand the whole thing,” Poe refinishes his story.

 

“You can’t use the Force like a Jedi does. You use it more for intuition, to make decisions and enhance your reflexes in a cockpit. You’d still be an amazing pilot, probably still the best without it I have no doubt, but the Force gives you an edge that others don’t have,” Anakin adds, hoping to help Poe calm down.

 

“Kriff, I’m going to need a nap after this,” Poe whispers as he sits down on a speeder “and some of that whiskey Chewie keeps on the Falcon.” Rey comes back to his side and puts her hand on his lower back. She knows how life changing learning that you can use the Force is, but it’s one thing using it voluntarily and in a way that is visible compared to learning that you’ve been using it without knowing it most of your life. She knows he’s confused right now and that he will need time to process what he just learned. 

 

“Your lightsaber is beautiful by the way,” Anakin keeps on talking, changing the subject off of Poe.

 

“Thank you Anakin. I think we’re going to need a little time alone now.” Poe’s elbows are on his knees, cradling his head in his hands. “We’ll speak later.”

 

“Of course Rey. And Poe, don’t let this change you.” Anakin fades back into the Force and Poe let’s out a deep breath. 

 

“Poe, do you want to leave the hangar?” Rey whispers and tries to make Poe look at her by running her hand in his hair. Poe looks up and softly nods. “Okay, let’s go to the Falcon,” she keeps speaking to him while they walk out. “Do you want Beebee to come with us?” She knows that his droid is one of the most important thing in his life. 

 

“Yeah, I want Bee.” Rey is relieved that he’s speaking. 

 

Gladly for her, as soon as she opens the door, the loyal astro-mech is already waiting. 

 

“Come on, buddy,” Poe pets his droid on the head. The droid coos and follows the pair out. Poe walks in front of Rey, ignoring most of his surroundings. He’s getting weird looks, but still keeps on walking. They pass in front of where the X-Wings and the A-Wing are and Snap and Karé call Poe over, but he dismisses them with a wave of his hand. The pilots look confused and walk towards Rey as Poe is almost at the Falcon, which is parked farther in the field. 

 

“I’ll let him explain when he’s ready. Make sure no one boards the Falcon.” Rey tells them with a smile and jogs to the Falcon to join Poe.

 

She walks into the main hold of the Falcon and Poe is sitting at the dejarik table. As soon as Rey sits down, Poe wraps his arms around her waist and tucks his head in the crook of her neck. She hugs him back and kisses the top of his head, an action he seems to love doing to her. 

 

“I’m sorry, I’m overreacting I know,” Poe mumbles. 

 

“No, it’s fine. You’ve been told a lot of important things today. I know it’s hard to know how to react when you first use the Force and you’ve been using it without your knowledge. Your morning has been a lot to deal with.”

 

“I should still be able to deal with this better. I have duties to attend to and a mission to prepare. I just dismissed two of my best friends.”

 

“Poe, nothing has changed. You’re still you. Let’s take a couple of minutes to relax and then we’ll talk about it.” 

 

“That’s a good idea, Sunshine.” 

 

Rey holds him while he tries to even out his breathing. She can still feel his nervousness, but he’s calming down. He finally pulls away slightly to press a gentle kiss to her cheek.

 

“Thank you for helping me. I’m going to miss you.”

 

“I’ll only be gone for three days. Then we’ll have more time to discuss everything that happened today,” Rey answers. “I’ll miss you too.”

 

“Let’s go back, I think Snap and Karé wanted to tell me something.” Rey nods and he stands up and brings her to her feet, kissing her one last time before they walk off the Falcon. 

 

The two pilots are still outside so Rey goes back inside while Poe goes in their direction. 

 

“Sorry for dismissing you earlier, I had a lot on my mind. What’s up?” 

 

“You sure you’re alright Poe?” Karé inquires “I haven’t seen you act like that for years.”

 

“I just learned some information and I needed to process it. Didn’t do a good job at it, but I tried.” Poe shrugs like it’s not a big deal. 

 

“Okay. We just wanted to tell you that the X-wings for the missions are going to be ready. We almost have the rations we’ll need and Chewbacca will take care of the Falcon,” Snap tells him and hands him the datapad with all the information. 

 

“Good. I’ll make sure you get the last items on the list and check in Chewie to see what he needs. Comm me if you need anything else. I’ll be working on my X-wing.” 

 

He grabs a tool box and goes over to his X-wing that’s parked beside the Falcon. Working on his ship has always been a stress reliever for him. He gets to talk with BeeBee while tinkering and clearing his mind. He removes his leather jacket and gets to work.

 

Back inside, Rey goes back to her room to pack her bag for the mission. Even if she has a week before she leaves, she wants to make sure she has everything prepared for her first mission. She takes her beige desert outfit even if she hasn’t worn it since she got her blueish grey one, but she has a feeling she might need it. She also grabs a set of sleeping clothes for the flight back, wanting to be comfortable. She throws in the blaster that Han had given her and straps her quarterstaff to the side of her pack just to be sure. Her lightsaber will be buckled on her belt like it has been since she built it. She looks back at her old crystal and wonders if she should bring it with her. She decides to give it to Poe for safe guarding and hopes it will give him some comfort while she’s away.

 

When she’s done with her packing she goes down to mess to have lunch. She’s disappointed to see that Poe isn’t there, but she knows he needs some more time. Rey grabs her rations and goes to her usual seat, in the back of the room, secluded from the rest of the tables. Only Leia is there since Finn is training the new recruits, Connix is in Command while Rose is working on the Falcon with Chewie. 

 

“How is Poe?” Leia asks as soon as Rey sits down. “He looked distraught when I saw him earlier. Is he mad about the mission?”

 

Rey takes a bite of shuura, wondering if she should tell her about Poe’s Force sensibility. Then it dawns on her that Leia probably already knows. It irks her a bit that Leia would hide this from Poe, but then again, she was told of how cocky he was when he was younger. She can easily imagine a younger Poe being over-confident because of learning this and making mistakes.

 

“Poe learned that he’s Force Sensitive and that I’m Luke’s daughter,” Rey tells her in a low voice, not wanting people to overhear her. “He’s having difficulty with the Force Sensitive part.”

 

Leia looks surprised, but Rey can tell that it’s not because she learned that Poe has the Force. “How did you figure that out? He’s not that easy to feel, you have to look for it.” 

 

“I’m not the one who figured it out, but it’s not true that he’s hard to feel. I can sense him all the time, he’s always there.”

 

“Who told him then? Was it Luke?”

 

“Actually, it was Anakin.”

 

Leia is shocked to hear her father’s name, but then she realizes that it makes sense that Rey is speaking with him. That’s how she got the code to the basement hangar and seems to know a lot about the summer house. 

 

“Did you know Leia?” Rey interrupts her train of thoughts.

 

“Yes, I’ve known since he was a little boy. Once, when I was visiting his parents with Han and Ben on Yavin 4, Ben was having a bad tantrum and we weren’t able to calm him down. He was starting to become very angry and Poe came into the room and started calming him down. He was showing him one of his model X-wing and Ben started calming down. I could feel the warm energy ebb out of him. I didn’t say anything about it since I wasn’t entirely sure.” Leia remembers how a young 6 year old Poe had sat down in front of a screaming Ben without even being slightly scared of him. Also, she didn’t want to scare Shara and Kes. “How did you tell him about Luke?” She has feeling it has to do with Poe coming out of Rey’s room this morning.

 

Rey isn’t sure she wants to tell Leia that they spent the night together even if nothing happened. She would like to keep some parts of her relationship between the both of them.

 

“We were together this morning and I simply told him.”

 

“I’ll make sure he’s fine while you’re away and talk to him.”

 

Rey finishes her lunch and goes back to her room to grab her pack to bring it to the Falcon. She’s glad to see that Poe seems to be a lot more relaxed than earlier. He’s currently sitting it the cockpit, a piece of a control panel in his lap. Beebee is in his slot and they are communicating, Bee in quick binary and Poe’s answering almost as quickly in a language that Rey doesn’t recognize. He’s clearly concentrated, so she doesn’t disturb him and boards the freighter. She waits for him to join her and they go back to their separate rooms for the night.

 

During the next week, they spend as much time together as they can. They always have breakfast together and they then go for a walk before their duties start. They always meet up for lunch and then for supper. Rey stays with him when he’s on watch for the night and they might have made out a couple of times in the command centre. Poe always kisses goodnight and she always hugs him tightly before they go back to their rooms.

 

Today is different. The mission is tomorrow. They both have a lot to prepare for it and many things to double check. Rey has a meeting with the intelligence officer and she has to work with Suralinda to see what kind of images they want to show to the galaxy. 

 

The only thing she has left to do is put her things in the Falcon and then she’s done. She finds the main bedroom and puts her things in it. Chewie had shown it to her earlier and she wondered why Leia hadn’t taken it when they were on the run. She had then realized that the memories Leia had shared with Han in that room were probably a lot. She heads to the main hold to ask Chewie if he need any help to get the ship ready. The wookie tells her that he needs help with the wiring that he can’t reach. Rey spends the rest of her day rewiring and fixing the Falcon, eating supper on the corner of the dejarik table with Chewbacca. They finally finish and Rey walks back to her room after wishing a goodnight to Leia in Command. 

 

She walks to her fresher and takes a long shower, washing away the oil and grease that she has on her hands and forearms. She know that it’s the last shower she will take for the next three days. When she steps out of the fresher, she combs her hair and gets into her sleeping clothes. She looks at herself in mirror, trying to decide what to do with her hair. She then gets an idea.

 

Rey walks out of her room and goes to knock on Poe’s door. Before her fist hits the door, it opens and Poe is looking at her with a smile.

 

“I was going to go to see you.” Poe runs a hand in his hair and steps a side, inviting Rey in.

 

“Can you do my hair?” Rey sits on his bed and crosses her legs.

 

“Yeah, of course.” Poe smile before sitting behind her. He braids her hair in a tighter braid than last time, assuming rightly that Rey wants it to last. When he’s done, he wraps his arms around her waist and hugs her.

 

“Can I stay the night?” Rey whispers.

 

“I would love it if you spent the night with me.” He kisses her behind the ear which makes her giggle. “What? Rey, are you ticklish?” Poe does it again, his hands sliding under her soft shirt to tickle her sides. Rey tries to wiggle away, laughing, but Poe grabs her by the waist and flips her so she’s laying on her back. He pins her under him and keeps tickling her. 

 

“Stop it Poe!” She keeps on laughing, not really trying to push him away. “I’m going to pee myself!” He doesn’t stop his effort, enjoying the sound of her laugh way too much. Rey manages to get her hands on the neckline of his shirt and pulls him down quickly, effectively stopping the tickling with a kiss. Poe’s hands stop moving, still on her sides and he kisses her back, pressing her into the mattress. Rey grabs his waist and pulls him towards herself, trying to get as close as possible to him. Poe groans and leans back slightly, catching his breath. He softly kisses her one more time, both of them knowing where this is going if they keep on going. 

 

“When you come back, Okay?” We’ll do this right, when we have the time. I don’t want to rush this with you. I’ll make it special, you deserve that.”

 

“This is special enough to me. I love you.”

 

“And I love you too, but I want to make it special.”

 

“Okay, when I come back.” Rey presses a kiss to the corner of his lips before letting him settle beside her.

 

They get under the covers and snuggle up to each other. Rey remembers that she has something that she needs to give for safe keeping.

 

“I have something I need to give you so you can keep it safe,” Rey whispers in the space between them. She reaches into the pockets of her sleeping pants and takes on of Poe’s hands. She puts the blue crystal in his hand and looks up at him. “It’s my old crystal. I want you to keep it safe for me.”

 

“Are you sure you trust me to keep this?” Poe asks, looking back at her. “Shouldn’t Leia have it?”

 

“I want you to have it and I trust you. I don’t think Leia wants anything to do with that crystal.” She closes his hand and kisses his knuckles before bringing it to her heart. “You’ll have this little piece of me with you while I’m gone.”

 

“Okay, I’ll keep it safe for you Sunshine,” Poe whispers before pulling her towards him. He hugs her tightly to his body, wishing that he could shield her from the rest of the galaxy. She tucks her face in his neck and listens to Poe tell her how much he loves her. She answers back every time that she loves him too and she gets a kiss on the top of her head. 

 

Rey falls asleep first. Poe, on the other hand, doesn’t fall asleep immediately. He spends as much time as he can gazing at the beautiful woman that he gets to hold, hoping that she’ll come back to him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! just a couple of quick explanations: Shuura is a fruit native to Naboo and Poe is speaking Yavinese to BB-8.
> 
> If you aren't on Tumblr, Damerey week is next week, so you can look forward to more content! I have a one-shot for everyday. If you are curious to learn more about it, check out damereyconnection on Tumblr!
> 
> Thank you for reading!


	21. Chapter 21

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What? An update on my main story? 
> 
> Yes, I haven't forgotten this story. I promise that I'm going to finish it.

When Poe wakes up, Rey is still snuggled up to his side. He can tell that she’s already awake by the way her hands are playing with the hem of his sleep shirt.

“How much time do we have left?” Poe asks, his voice heavy with sleep.

“We need to be in Command in an hour,” she says before kissing the underside of his jaw. “A few more minutes and we’ll get up.”

“Okay.” Poe knows that it’s the only time he has to say goodbye to her. Once they’re out of the safety of his room, they won’t be able to hold each other anymore. He has so many things he would like to tell her, but so little time to do it. He uses the arm that’s wrapped around her waist to push her onto her back, settling his weight on top of her. Rey smiles up at him and it’s brighter than any stars Poe has ever seen. He drops down, pressing his lips to hers. Rey’s hand goes to his hair and she uses that leverage to deepen the kiss.

Poe doesn’t know for how much time they make out in his bed, but he’d do anything for it to last forever. The only reason he stops kissing her is because they do have to get ready for the day.

“I love you so much. Please be careful and come back to me,” he whispers, pressing his forehead against her’s. “Just be careful.”

“I will, I promise Poe. I love you too,” she tells him, nuzzling the side of his nose with her own. 

They finally get out of bed and get dressed for the day. Poe touches up her braid, making sure that every strand of her hair is properly in it’s place. His hands linger on her shoulder for a couple of seconds before he turns her around to kiss her again. Poe puts the crystal in the pocket of his pants and straps his gun holster on his thigh before going to the ‘fresher to fix his own hair. After one last kiss, Rey steps out of the room and Poe does the same about two minutes later. 

 

They meet up at Command with the rest of the people that are on the mission for a last meeting to review the plan before leaving. Then, before he knows it, Poe is standing at the edge of the tarmac, watching the people board their assigned ships. He stands beside Leia and Connix with his arms locked behind his back as Rey walks up the boarding ramp. Just before she can disappear from his sight he steps forward and calls out at her.

“Commander Rey?” 

Rey immediately turns on her feet to look at him, her braid swinging over her shoulder.

“Yes General Dameron?” She answers easily with a smile.

“May the Force be with you,” he shouts over the sound of the ships firing up. 

“And with you!” She tells him, her gaze lingering on him for a couple seconds, burning his image into her memory, before turning around to finally get into the Falcon.

*** 

She walks to the cockpit and sits down in the captain’s chair, beside Chewbacca, and pilots the ship out of the orbit of Naboo. She waits until they are in light speed to put the ship on auto-pilot and sits back. She turns her chair to look at Finn who is sitting behind her.

“How do you feel about this mission?” Finn asks.

“This is my real first mission I guess. I know we are doing the right thing, I just hope everything will be fine. How do you feel about it?” It’s also his first mission since the Supremacy.

“I think we have a good plan. The team Poe picked is well trained and the info we have seems legit. I think this is going to go well.” He looks like he’s about to say something, but he hesitates only for a couple of seconds before speaking.

“So you and Poe, what’s going on with that?” 

While they had both agreed on telling Finn and Rose, they hadn’t really had the time to see each other often out of meetings. Finn has taken his job of training the new recruits very seriously and he’s more than good at his task and Rose has been working long hours on the new ships. Rey thinks this is a good time to tell him, as the only people that are in the cockpit are Finn, Chewie and her. She just doesn’t really know how to approach the subject. It’s not like she’s done this before. 

“We… we are together, I guess… Yeah, we’re together,” Rey punctuates her phrase with a soft smile. “It’s great, he’s wonderful and sweet.”

“I’m happy for both you. I know I haven’t really known you both for that long, but you seem to really fit together.” 

“How are you and Rose doing?”

“We’re doing really good. She’s way too good for me. It’s good having somebody, isn’t it?”

“It’s something I never thought I’d have to be honest. Jakku didn’t have much to offer in the decent partner category,” Rey says, sadly remembering all the lonely nights on the desert planet.

“Never thought I’d have that either. We weren’t allowed to be in relationships in the First Order,” Finn adds, sadness also lacing his words. 

“We aren’t alone anymore. We have people that we can ask for help now,” she cites the words that Poe had himself told her. 

“It’s weird being surrounded by people that really care about you. I’ve never been a good sleeper and Rose actually care enough to stay up with me to make sure I’m fine. I didn’t even know people did that,” Finn tells her with fondness on his features.

“I know! Poe always makes me remember to eat. I forget sometimes since I didn't always have access to any, but he makes sure I eat enough. Oh! and he brings me water when I’ve been meditating or working for a long time and he insists I drink it. He’s really cute.” Rey blushes when she thinks of one of the favourite things Poe does for her while her hand naturally drifts to her braid.

“Man, being in a relationship is great,” Finn muses with smile. 

“Yes it is,” Rey also concludes happily, already thinking of being back in Poe’s arms.

Beside them, Chewie growls something that somewhat sounds like a sarcastic acknowledgement, sending them both into a fit of laughter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to every one for reading this story!


	22. Chapter 22

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ... an update? I swear I keep on writing that I will keep my updates closer together and then I don't. Sorry about that.

After traveling for about ten hours, Rey brings the Falcon out of light speed and waits a couple of seconds for the other ships to jump out. As soon as she gets confirmation that everybody is good to go, Rey leads the way to the surface of the planet and they land a couple of clicks from the target. The infiltration team, lead by the Intelligence officer, leaves first so they can disable the communication centre and work on freeing the slaves. The officer also has the order from Poe to gather and download as much information while everything is going down. Karé and the two other pilots under her command stay low.

Rey straps her quarterstaff across her back and makes sure her lightsaber is securely clipped to her belt while she watches her team check their weapons. She has a final quick rundown with Sura to make sure everything is ready. Then, she gets the confirmation that the communications except the ones between the troopers on the site are disabled as planned so they get on their way. 

Rey leads her team through the forest in the direction of the mines. When they get close enough, Sura gets the recording equipment ready and stays behind and out of sight to do her job. The team stays hidden in the tree line while Finn, Chewie and Rey keep on advancing.

They manage to get to the middle of the courtyard before they get noticed by the two stormtroopers that are on watch.

“Identify yourselves!” One of them yells in their direction, his voice distorted by his helmet.

“Release the slaves and then we’ll talk,” Rey answers back, keeping her voice calm and walking forward while Finn and Chewie stay back.

“You are on First Order property, answer now!” The troop screams back, raising his blaster as they get closer.

“People aren’t property and this mining colony belongs to the people not to the First Order,” Rey says, her hand wrapping around the hilt of her lightsaber under her cloak. When both of the trooper raise their blasters completely Rey lowers her hood. “This is your last chance to get the message to your superior to free the people you have enslaved before I decide to do it myself.” 

Rey doesn’t expect her threats to work, but a small part of her has the hopes that she can solve the without any blood being shed. While it would have been easier to just over-throw the First Order by infiltrating the base and taking control from the inside, they only found out about this mining colony because of Sura’s propaganda plan and they have to execute the main goal of the mission.

The trooper answers to her threat by firing at her. Rey ignites her lightsaber and blocks the two bolts, her cloak falling off her shoulder. At the sight of the lightsaber, the two troopers call for backup and Run to hide behind a small wall. Soon enough, a platoon of stormtroopers arrive ready to fight lead by one with a red shoulder plate, identifying him as the one in command of the small batallion.

“Remember that I gave you a choice, a good one. One where none of you needed to get hurt. We all have a choices,” Rey tells them and then clicks on her comm unit, giving the confirmation to the team on the inside to free the slaves. Alarms start blaring and Rey chases forward, taking on the troopers alone for now. She tries to incapacitate most of them without killing them. Luckily, as soon as she’s in close quarter combat, most of the trooper give up easily as they don’t have the right weaponry to have a chance. Rey advances towards the main building, occasionally using the Force to push enemies to the ground without killing them.

While this is going on, Finn and the team make sure that the troopers are rounded up and no longer armed. The plan is to let the local freed government decide what they want to do with their captors. In the skies, Karé and her small squadron take out the tie-fighters that are trying to leave and neutralizes the two AT-STs that were stationed. Soon enough the freed miners burst out of the buildings, lead by the infiltration team, escorting the First Order officials that are in charge.

As planned with Sura, Rey uses that moment to send a shock wave through the Force, knocking out the last few troopers standing. She lets out a deep breath and looks behind her, glad to see that Finn has everything under control. She walks in the direction of the miners and stops in front of the handcuffed officers. 

“I gave your troopers a choice, a choice to peacefully make this situation right and they refused. Slavery is wrong and I do not tolerate it. I will let the people of this planet decide what will happen to you,” Rey cites, her tone projecting authority.

“You won’t win this. The Supreme Leader will kill you all. You have no chance of beating us,” the officer almost spits out. “You’ll all die like the rest of your precious rebel scum.”

“It’s not about winning, this isn’t a game. It’s about protecting what is right. And if I die, I’ll die protecting the galaxy like all the Jedi before me.” Rey walks pass him to go greet the woman that looks like the leader of the mining colony. She bows her head, an echo of an old Jedi tradition, and smiles. “The Resistance is glad to have been able to help you.”

“Thank you for helping us Jedi Master…” The older woman hesitates, not knowing her name.

“Rey. My name is Rey,” she answers. “It was my pleasure to help.”

They finish rounding up the troopers and the officers and help the miners to escort them back to their small village. She helps the injured miners into a small transpo so Karé can escort them to the closest hospital. When she’s sure that everything is truly under control, Rey takes a step back to relax. 

She walks up a dirt path, intending to join Finn and the leader of the village, but she falls to her knees instead. She hears a voice, one she does not recognize. Yet, it does not scare her. 

_Young Rey, you have come so far on your own. The path you have chosen is not one that will be easy. You will feel lost at times, but surround yourself with the right people and you will succeed. There have been many Jedi who could have been the Chosen One, but I believe that your time has come. Find me and I will help you finish your training._

Rey gasps when the voice fades away and stands up quickly, her head whipping around to see if anybody witnessed what just happened. She lets a shaky breath out when she notices that she’s alone and leans against a brick hut to process what just happened.

Rey doesn’t know what to do. A part of her knows that she needs to find this person and that she can trust them. An other part of her is telling her that this could just be another trick. That Kylo Ren could be trying to lure her away from the Resistance to kill her or worse take her. She can’t let herself be taken again. If Kylo manages to get into her mind, he could find out where the new base is and take revenge on the whole system of Naboo. Then again, she knows how Kylo’s Force signature feels like and the one she just felt was nothing like it. It felt balanced and peaceful, just like her father, but quite older. The Force is telling her to follow this through and she knows it.

Rey turns around and heads for the Falcon to get her backpack. When she gets to the border of the village, Poe’s reminder that she doesn’t have to do anything alone and that she can always ask for help makes her stop in her tracks. She turns around to look in the direction where Finn is. She knows that if she tells him that a voice in her head asked her to find him, Finn will immediately try to stop her and will contact Poe. And if Poe calls her and tells her that she needs to come back, to come back to him, she could never refuse him. She couldn’t tell him that she’s breaking her promise of coming back to him. 

So, she keeps on walking and soon enough she’s watching the boarding ramp as it lowers. She walks to the captain’s quarters and grabs her bag. She then goes to the cockpit to leave a note to Finn telling him what is going on. She sits down in her chair and writes.

_I do not know how to tell you what is really going on and what happened to me. So I will simply tell you what I am doing. If you are reading this, it’s because I have left the planet and the mission without telling you all. I am fine and have the feeling that everything will be alright. I am doing this for the Resistance. I will find my way back so do not look for me. Do not blame the person that gave me my means of transportation off the planet. This mission was a success and I am proud to have been part of it._

_May the Force be with you,_   
_Rey_

Then she leaves one with Poe’s name on it. She goes back to the main hold and brushes her fingers against the dejarik table. About a week ago, she was holding Poe there. Now she doesn’t even know when she’ll get to feel his skin under her finger tips. Her hand goes to her braid, a new quirk she seems to have picked up, and she leaves the Falcon. She jogs back to the village, smiling when she sees that R2 is waiting for her and follows her instinct to a bigger hut in the western part, her loyal droid in tow. She spots an old man and walks up to him.

“Hello, my name is -”

“Jedi Master Rey,” the old man smiles. “What can I help you with?”

“Do you have, by any chance, a small ship?”

The old man looks at her, surprised by her demand, but relaxes. “I have a small ship hidden in my barn. It doesn’t have any weapons but it has a functional Hyperdrive. It’s still functional. It belonged to my son, but he died down in the mines.”

“I’m sorry for your lost. Would you be ready to part with it for some credits? I would not ask if it were not important, but I understand if the ship means too much to you,” Rey says to him.

“I will give it to you. My son may have died, but you saved his wife and his children today. You saved my village and it would be an honour to know that I have helped you in return,” the old man tells her. “I have enough fuel to get you far away. Come I will show you.”

“Thank you for your help,” Rey answers, bowing her head in respect.

The older man leads her to the barn and shows her the small ship. She fuels it up and gets R2 and her stuff inside. It’s small but it will do. 

“My friends will probably come here when they see the ship leaving. Tell them that I left a note on our ship explaining myself.”

Rey thanks the man one last time before she joins her droid inside. She sits down at the commands and fires it up. Beside her, R2 beeps in concern.

“I don’t know where we are going R2. I just hope I’m making the right choice.”

She hurries up and lifts off, maneuvering the ship upwards and into light speed before she can be stopped. She watches as the stars fly past her, her heart already missing her pilot.


	23. Chapter 23

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> New chapter! The angst begins....

Finn is talking to the leader of the village, an old woman named Mirra, when he sees the small ship lifting off. He frowns and looks back at the woman.

“I thought you said you didn’t have any transpo left?” Finn asks, trying to sound too rude. 

“I thought we didn’t have any either, I don’t know who that is,” Mirra responds, putting her hand over her eyes to block the sun so she can see better. “The First Order told us that they had confiscated all of them, I don’t know who is piloting that ship.”

Finn turns around, intending to ask Rey if they should follow it and suddenly, it hits him. He doesn’t know where she is. He hasn’t even seen her in a while and she was supposed to join him about fifteen minutes ago. 

“This is captain Finn. Does anybody have eyes on Rey?” He asks nervously on the comms. 

The negative answers he gets puts him in full panic mode. “Karé can you follow that ship?” Finn asks over the comm, already running in the direction of the Falcon.

“It’s already gone to lightspeed Finn, I can’t follow it. Do you think it’s a rogue stormtrooper that we missed?”

“If we did miss one of them, we should leave as quickly as possible,” Suralinda adds. “The ship looks like it left from the village. Stormtroopers are really stupid, but I doubt that one would leave their base to steal a ship from the village. Maybe a villager decided to leave the planet in case the First Order decide to retaliate.”

Finn switches to the private channel between Karé, Sura, Chewbacca, Rey and him. “No, I think it’s Rey,” he says, a bit out of breath as he is running. “Meet me at the Falcon.”

When he gets to the clearing where the freighter is, Chewie is already lowering the boarding ramp. He runs past the wookie and immediately goes to the cockpit, where he really hopes Rey is. He can hear Karé’s X-wing landing outside.

“Kriff!” Finn yells when he reaches the doorway to the cockpit and sees that it’s empty. 

He hears footsteps coming his way and turns around when they get louder. Karé stops in front of him, running her hand through her short blond hair.

“Her pack is gone from her quarters. She’s gone,” she lets out a deep breath. “Kriff should we contact Poe?”

“That would just make him panic. Either he’ll scrap the mission goal and send us after her, or worse, he’ll jump in his ship and chase after Rey himself,” Suralinda tells them.

“We should at least figure out what we’ll tell him when we get back,” Karé says.

“I think Rey already planned that,” Finn says as he spots the two pieces of folded flimsi on the main console. “There’s two of them,” he adds as he picks the letters up. 

He reads the one with his name on it, putting the one with Poe’s name in the pocket of his jacket for safe keeping. He opens his and reads through it quickly.

“It just says to not look for her and that she’s left.” He doesn’t go too much into the details since there’s isn’t time for it.

“We have to go back to base,” Karé says and takes the letter from Finn’s hand to also take a look at it. “At least she says she’s coming back.” She folds it back and gives it to Finn. 

“Let’s leave now so we can get the news to Poe and Leia quickly.”

He orders everybody over the comms, telling them to get back to their transpo since they are leaving in 10 minutes. He sits down at the co-pilot’s seat beside a sorrowful Chewbacca.

While the mission was a success, they leave the planet feeling defeated.

***

Poe walks out the command centre, his pace accelerating at the thought of seeing Rey again. The Falcon had called ahead saying that they would be landing in a couple of minutes and that the mission was a success. Poe stands at the end of the tarmac with his arms crossed behind his back. He watches as the Falcon gradually gets closer, his heart hammering in his chest. He can already imagine going to bed tonight beside her while she tells him about the mission and he can tell her what he’s been doing since she left. He wants to braid her hair and kiss her cheeks while he does it. Then, he wants to wrap his arms around her waist and pull her to his chest so he can lay her on top of him. He wants to fall asleep with her safe beside him.

The Millennium Falcon lands in his designated spot, the three x-wings following not far behind. As soon as the boarding ramp lowers, Poe strides forward, his need to see her safe overpowering all logic. 

He stops dead in his tracks when he sees the defeated look on Finn’s face. He waits for Rey to show up behind Finn, to see her smile at him and jump off the landing ramp as she always does. He stands frozen in his spots as Finn walks down and stops in front of him.

“Where is Rey?” Poe says in a low voice, finally able to talk.

“She’s fine-” Finn starts talking, but he is interrupted by Poe.

“Then where is she?”

“She fine from what we can tell. She left in a transpo a local gave her,”

“What do you mean she left?” Poe snaps. “She wouldn’t just leave like that!”

A crowd is slowly starting to gather around the tarmac, wanting to see the people that have successfully pulled off the first mission since Crait. Snap arrives and as soon as he sees the look on his wife’s face, he knows something his wrong. Karé nods in Poe’s direction and Snap jogs towards where the two men are speaking. As soon as he’s beside Poe, he puts a hand on his friends shoulder to try to make him calm down. 

“She left letters in the Falcon to tell us she left,” Finn takes the first one out of his jacket and hands it to Poe. He watches as Poe reads the letter, his eyes becoming more and more sad as he finished it. “Rey left one with just your name on it. I didn’t read it,” Finn adds, an apologetic look crossing his features. 

Poe’s eyes snap up from the piece of paper, the hand holding it dropping to his side. Finn gives him the one with his name on it. Poe takes a deep breath and puts it in his pocket, the one where Rey’s crystal has been since she left. He doesn’t want to read in front of everyone as he doesn’t know how he will react.

“Report to Command in ten minutes for debrief,” Poe speaks up, looking across the tarmac to make sure everybody is listening. He doesn’t wait for the answers before looking back at Finn. 

Poe gives him a small smile and puts his hand on Finn’s shoulder, squeezing slightly.

“Thank you buddy,” he says in a soft voice before turning around and walking back to the building, leaving his friends behind.

***

Poe tries to go through the debrief like nothing happened, proving once again to everyone why he was given the leadership of the Resistance. The only time he mentions Rey is to ask when she left and want kind of ship she took. He also reads the letter out loud to everyone, not wanting them to feel abandoned. He looks at the footage Suralinda got with a smile, proud to see Rey standing up and defeating the stormtrooper with ease. 

During the whole meeting, he holds the crystal in his hands, trying to keep himself together as long as possible. When he’s sure that he has all the information he needs and that the couple of people that did get injured got to medical, he dismisses everyone. 

He climbs the stairs towards his quarters trying to ignore the nagging feeling that Rey might be hurt somewhere in the galaxy. He gets to the hallway where all the rooms are and he lingers in front of Rey’s quarters before going to his. 

When he gets inside, he toes off his boots and shrugs out of his leather jacket, before sitting on the edge of his bed. He takes the letter and the crystal out of his jacket and places them beside him. 

Poe doesn’t know if he’s ready to read the words that she left behind for him. He’s scared of what he’ll see and what it will make him do. He can’t just jump in his X-wing and go looking for her. He has so many responsibilities now. He runs his hand in his hair and picks up the paper. He unfolds it carefully and starts reading.

_My sweet Poe,_

_I’m sorry I had to leave. I know I told you that I would be careful during this mission and that I would come back to you, but something called out to me and I need to find out what it is. I’ll be careful, I swear. I have you to come back to and I can’t wait. I have R2 with me and enough rations to last me for a while and I promise that I will remember to drink water. I don’t know where I’m going or when I’ll be back, but I hope that we won’t be apart for too long. Don’t blame yourself or others for me leaving, they couldn’t have stopped me anyway. I love you and I miss you._

_Rey_

Poe reads it at least five times before putting it down. He tries to calm down and to convince himself that Rey’s fine and that she’ll come back, but it’s too much. He feels like all that has happened in the last months is coming back to him. He’s been burying himself with his work and helping others instead of taking care of himself. He wants to be angry, yell, punch something or jump in his ship and find something to blow up, but he’s just so tired. He doesn’t realize he’s crying until he feels droplets of water hitting the back of his hands. He takes a shaky breath and lies back on his bed. He lets himself cry until eventually he falls asleep. 

***

Rey sits back in her seat and crosses her legs and tries to meditate. She needs to figure out where she’s supposed to be going. She’s currently drifting in space to conserve fuel. However, every time she connects to the Force, she can only feel deep waves of sadness. She opens her eyes and sighs. She doesn’t understand why she feels so sad. 

“Did you get anything on the scanners R2?” Rey asks her loyal droid even if she has the feeling this is completely Force related.

R2 answers that the vast space around them is empty and that they are alone. He confirms that he will keep on searching for a signal for her.

“Alone… Yes we are R2.” Rey kicks her feet up on the console. “I guess we’ll have to wait for a sign.”

Eventually, when the adrenaline from her mission has faded away, her thoughts drift to Poe. She misses him already and wishes that she could just call him, but she knows she has to do this alone. She’s supposed to be on her way back to him right now and they could be enjoying the nabooian sunset together on top of the Falcon in a couple of hours. She could be peppering his jaw with kisses, his stubble scratching her lips. Poe could be doing her hair while he softly mumbles one of his songs. Maybe they could be walking around the plains around the compound. 

As much as she would prefer to stay awake and figure out where she’s going, the stress and exhaustion from the today’s mission is quickly catching up to her. Rey falls asleep, her eyes slowly closing as she counts the stars in front of her.


	24. Chapter 24

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for all the long gaps between the updates. I've really been enjoying writing modern AUs lately, but I swear I will finish this fic. I have four chapters already outlined that I need to write and they are going to be done 100%. I can't guarantee a time frame. I appreciate all of you that take the time in your day to read what I write and hope you are still interested in this story ;)

A couple of hours after Rey has fallen asleep, R2 gently prods her awake. She opens her eyes slowly and pats him on the dome.

“I’m awake R2, I’m awake,” Rey says, still a bit disoriented. “What is it?”

[You have been sleeping for a long time. You should start searching again.]

“You’re right. Did you find anything interesting on the datacard?” Rey asks R2 as she checks on the holomap where she wants to head next. They had decided to make a copy of the information that was collected during the mission and give one to each transpo in case they got intercepted.

[It has the location of many First Order bases. They are all smaller bases, but could still provide us needed information. The Resistance will be aided by this information.] The droid drones out. [C3-PO’s spies will definitely have pleasure finding more information with this.]

“That’s good. I guess we’ll just avoid going to those sectors for now. I’ll try meditating again. Tell me if anything happens.”

R2 beeps in affirmation and settles back beside Rey, acting as her sentinel once more.

***

Poe groans when he hears his datapad’s morning alarm going off. He wasn’t able to get a minute of sleep during the night, worried out of his mind about what could happen to Rey. He trusts her and knows that she’s strong, stronger than most people, but there’s a reason pilots fly in squadrons. It’s important to have people watching your back and that you can trust no mater what. He knows for sure he would be dead if he didn’t have Black Squadron with him on his mission. 

Poe blindly slaps the pad on the bedside table and finally manages to make the alarm stops. He sits up and swings his legs out of the bed, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees. His whole body feels heavy and he just wants to curl himself back in a ball on the mattress, but he knows he has a job to do and that people are depending on him for leadership and guidance.

So he gets up go to the ‘fresher to splash water on his face. He notices in the mirror that his shirt is all rumpled up so he throws it off and onto the pile of clothes in the corner of the room pretending that he didn’t see Rey’s sleeping shirt. His eyes settle on the ring he wears around his neck for just a second and he moves on, knowing that thinking about his mother or where he would like it to be will only bring him more pain. He gets a clean shirt and puts on and he doesn’t even go back to the ‘fresher to check his hair. Just before leaving his room, he grabs the crystal and Rey’s letter and makes sure that they are carefully secured in the pockets of his cargo pants.

Poe makes a quick stop in mess to grab himself a cup of caff before going to the Command Center. Snap tries to get him to sit down and eat something with them.

“Poe, take breath and sit with us,” Snap calls when Poe walks quickly beside their usual table. Karé is looking at him with a frown, her long friendship with Poe making it easy for her to know that he’s not doing good.

“I don’t have time today, I’ll catch you at lunch,” Poe says dismissively.

“Briefing is in 20 minutes, you can sit down,” Snap retorts.

“I called an early one for the Intelligence committee. I have to go.” He turns on his feet and walks away. He hates being cold to his friend, but he knows that if he had stayed, it would only worry his friends more and judging on Karé’s face, they already were enough.  
Poe walks down the halls with BB-8 at his side and enters the Command, making everybody stand in attention.

“At ease, let’s get through the morning’s briefing. I want updates on the injured and the intelligence collected.”

So Poe does what he does best, he throws himself into his work and tries to get through his day.

***

Rey has been meditating for about an hour when she feels a small tug in the Force. It’s not a voice like she had heard in the village or like when Anakin or Luke try to contact her and it’s certainly not similar to when Kylo Ren tries to open the bond. It’s older and calmer more of a touch than anything else. So she lets it in and to understand what it is and what it wants. To her, it feels like the Force lays a thread in front of her to follow.

Rey tells R2 to take the ship out of fuel-saving function and to prepare for a jump to lightspeed. It takes a couple of random jumps, but eventually, Rey finally feels that they have reached their destination and that they should head down to the planet surface.

“Is this one of the planet on the list R2?”

[No, it is not.] Then, he makes a strange noise, one that Rey can only describe a disgust, which makes her look away from the controls for a moment. [This is the Dagobah system.] 

“Dagobah, uh, never heard it,” Rey says before starting her descent towards the green planet.

Just before they reach the tree line R2 gives her a warning, [Watch the landing.]

Rey manages to find a spot that looks suitable for a landing and she sets her ship down. It sinks slightly in the mud, but not too much. Rey jumps out of it and lifts R2 to a solid ground. The small ship sinks a bit in the mud, but it’s nothing too bad. R2 even makes Rey laughs when he beeps in relief. 

“Why don’t you watch the ship while I figure out where we are? I have my comm unit on me if you pick up something,” Rey says as she swings her pack over her shoulder.

With they help over her quarterstaff, Rey navigates the swamps slowly but safely. After a while, she ends up in front of a big tree. This seems like a good spot for her to sit down and try to connect to the Force. She sits down on one of the massive roots sprouting from the ground. 

It doesn’t take her long to sense something shift in the air around her. She opens her eyes and stares curiously at the Force ghost that just appeared in front of her. He’s wearing Jedi robes and he’s quite tall. His hair is long and is a greyish brown colour. 

“I’m Rey,” she decides to talk first, anxious to know who the man in front of her is.

“My name is Qui-Gon Jinn. I’m happy that we can finally meet you. We’ve been watching you.”

“It wasn’t your voice that I heard in the village. You weren’t the one to call out to me,” Rey says and cocks her head to the side, frowning. “No, your Force signature is different.”

“No I wasn’t me. You are already good and detecting signatures,” Qui-Gon says with a smile. “You are strong in the Force.”

“Why did I need to come here to finish my training? Are you only able to appear here?”

“No but can’t you feel it, how powerful the Force is on Dagobah?” 

Rey closes her eyes and opens herself up to the planet, just like she had done on Ahch-To, and she can suddenly feel all the life forms strumming in the Force. 

“Was this a Jedi Temple?” She looks behind her at the tree, “This one is not like the one on Ahch-To.”

“It was home to a Jedi master that was forced into exile years ago,” he answers.

“Who were you?”

“I was a Jedi during the Galactic Republic. I died before the war began fighting a Sith on Naboo. I’m the one who found Anakin Skywalker and brought him for training in the Jedi arts.”

“You’re the one who trained Obi-Wan Kenobi!” Rey gasps as she starts to recognize who is in front of her. “I read about you on the HoloNet.” Rey had checked out the battle that Poe told her about when he found out about her lightsaber.

“Yes and I am about to help you train in the ways of the Living Force.”

Qui-Gon’s ghost sits down, crossing his legs, and Rey copies his action. They meditate for a while, Qui-Gon occasionally giving Rey some tips on how to better harness and connect to the Force. He teaches her a new way to slip inside it and to join herself to it. It’s entirely different to the way Luke had shown her, but she finds herself enjoying it all the same. 

Rey spends about two weeks with Qui-Gon Jinn learning about the Force and, to her great pleasure, some combat. She learns how to use Form V, also known as Djem So. It was the technic that the old Jedi master had favoured in his career. It also the most efficient way to reflect blaster bolts which will surely be a useful skill to know in the future. She’s happy to finally have more training in handling a lightsaber because, as much as she’s more than skilled with her quarter-staff, she didn’t know how to enhance her moves with the Force.

However, when she’s not training, her mind often wanders. She’s can’t help but to think about to think about Poe. She misses him so much already. It’s not like when she was on Jakku. Back then, she was waiting for her parents to come back to her. Now somebody is waiting for her. She picks at the food in front of her, some kind of swamp rat that she caught and cooked, and tries hard not to think about the fruits that Poe always brings her. She tries not to imagine herself drinking a cup of caff with Black Squadron in the mornings or eating lunch with Finn. She doesn’t want to think about eating snacks with Jess and Rose while they work on mods for the ships. 

Nevertheless, if she works hard and quickly, if she listens to every word Qui-Gon gives her and trains hard, she’ll be able to go back to Naboo soon. So she finishes her lunch and goes back to the grove where she usually trains. She meditates for a while and then starts moving through her lightsaber forms. It’s not hard to work up sweat, the swamps are humid enough that she sweats just by walking. 

“Good you are, at this,” a strange voice makes her jump. Rey whips around, using the Force through her lightsaber the way Qui-Gon taught her, ready to defend herself.


End file.
